Active disambiguation guides inferring controllability and cause in social interactions
There has been considerable interest in how we ascertain whether an environment is controllable and the neural mechanisms mediating this process. An especially acute version of this problem occurs when multiple people work together. Using a new task, fMRI and computational modelling, we demonstrate that in such ambiguous social contexts, people engage in specific behaviours that we refer to as active disambiguation. This process helps individuals establish what they themselves, as opposed to others, control and what consequence they themselves cause or that another person causes. People identify when active disambiguation is needed and engage in it at that time. A pattern of activity in the supramarginal gyrus that emerges during and after active disambiguation is linked to tracking uncertainty and establishing controllability. We show that activity in this brain region signals a second learning mechanism, by which individuals attribute outcomes to themselves versus others, proportional to their perceived control.
Authors
- Hailey A. Trier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2064-0614)
- Jill X. O’Reilly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6998-455X)
- Nils Kolling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0283-6966)
- Jacqueline Scholl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9969-1355)
- Lisa Spiering (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9071-6541)
- Marco K. Wittmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5229-7457)
- Matthew F. S. Rushworth
Institutions
- Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (FR)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Inserm (FR)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon (FR)
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging (GB)
- Prostate Cancer Research (GB)
- Institut Cellule Souche et Cerveau (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier (FR)
- University College London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-12-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67853-8
- Primary Topic
- Action Observation and Synchronization
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Government of the United Kingdom
- UK Research and Innovation
- European Commission
- Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
- Directorate for Biological Sciences
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Medical Research Council
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council