Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42812150›Full record

ArticlebioRxiv : the preprint server for biology2026

Thalamocortical orchestration of human theory of mind.

Runhao Lu, Emily Davidson, Jonah Miller-Smith, Dian Lyu, Zoe Lusk, Prantik Kundu, Julien Doyon, Xiaoqian J Chai, Boris C Bernhardt, Gary R Turner and 1 more

Abstract readPreprint
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Runhao LuMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-5703-076X
Emily DavidsonMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Jonah Miller-SmithMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Dian LyuLaboratory of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Zoe LuskLaboratory of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Prantik KunduBen L. Silberstein Institute for Brain Health, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
Julien DoyonMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Xiaoqian J ChaiMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Boris C BernhardtMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-9256-6041
Gary R TurnerDepartment of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
R Nathan SprengMontreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-1530-8916

Funding

Neural Mechanisms of Social Attribution from FacesR01MH134990 · NIMH · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI RALPH ADOLPHS, Josef Parvizi · 2024 to 2026
$2.2M
Numbers in the Human BrainR01MH109954 · NIMH · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI PARVIZI, JOSEF · 2016 to 2020
$2.0M
Memory, Attention, and Default Mode Processes in Human Posteromedial CortexR01NS078396 · NINDS · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI PARVIZI, JOSEF · 2012 to 2016
$1.7M
Human Thalamus in Propagation of Temporal Lobe Seizures and Memory FormationR01NS137650 · NINDS · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · PI ROBERT SCOTT FISHER, Josef Parvizi · 2025 to 2026
$1.2M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH109954NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH134990NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS078396NINDS NIH HHS R01 NS137650
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Reasoning about others' thoughts or beliefs is central to human social behavior. This ability, known as theory of mind (ToM), has been primarily attributed to cortical regions of the default network (DN). However, whether and how subcortical structures, particularly the thalamus, contribute to this high-level computation remains unknown. Here, we investigated human thalamocortical dynamics during a naturalistic ToM movie watching condition, taking a rare dual-modality approach by combining high-field 7T fMRI and intracranial stereoelectroencephalography (sEEG). Across both modalities, ToM events reliably activated the DN, whereas the thalamus lacked canonical local activation. Despite this absence of local activation, the thalamus shared ToM-related representational structure and exhibited enhanced bidirectional interactions with the DN during mentalizing across methods. Crucially, sEEG revealed that the thalamus coordinated DN activity via cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), whereby thalamic low-frequency phase unidirectionally modulated DN high-frequency activity. Furthermore, the strength of thalamic-DN PAC predicted both the activity magnitude and the representational quality of ToM-related information within the dorsomedial DN subsystem. Together, these findings identify the human thalamus as a regulatory hub that gates DN computations during ToM without exhibiting observable localized activity, revealing a previously unrecognized mechanism by which thalamic dynamics coordinate high-level social cognition in humans.

Indexed as

7T fMRIDefault Mode Network (DMN)MentalizingNaturalisticPartly CloudysEEGThalamus

Identifiers

PMID42812150
PMCPMC13618414

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.