Theory of Mind (ToM) is involved in experiencing the mental states and/or emotions of others. A further distinction can be drawn
between emotion and perception/sensation. We investigated the mechanisms engaged when participants’ attention is driven toward
specific states. Accordingly, 21 right-handed healthy individuals performed a modified ToM task in which they reflected about someone’s
emotion or someone’s body sensation, while they were in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The analysis of brain
activity evoked by this task suggests that the two conditions engage a widespread common network previously found involved in
affective ToM (temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), parietal cortex, dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), medial- prefrontal cortex (MPFC),
Insula). Critically, the key brain result is that body sensation implicates selectively ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). The current
findings suggest that only paying attention to the other’s body sensations modulates a self-related representation (VMPFC).
