Precision-dependent modulation of social attention

Social attention, guided by cues like gaze direction, is crucial for effective social interactions. However, how dynamic environmental context modulates this process remains unclear. Integrating a hierarchical Bayesian model with fMRI, this study investigated how individuals adjusted attention based on the predictions about cue validity (CV). Thirty-three participants performed a modified Posner location-cueing task with varying CV. Behaviorally, individuals’ allocation of social attention was finely tuned to the precision (inverse variance) of CV predictions, with the predictions being updated by precision-weighted prediction errors (PEs) about the occurrence of target locations. Neuroimaging results revealed that the interaction between allocation of social attention and CV influenced activity in regions involved in spatial attention and/or social perception, such as the temporoparietal junction (TPJ), frontal eye field (FEF), superior temporal sulcus (STS), and inferior parietal sulcus (IPS). Precision-weighted PEs about target locations specifically modulated activity in the TPJ, STS, and primary visual cortex (V1), underscoring their roles in refining attentional predictions. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) further demonstrated that enhanced absolute precision-weighted PEs about target locations strengthened the effective connectivity from V1 and STS to TPJ, emphasizing their roles in conveying residual error signals from low-level sensory areas to high-level critical attention areas. These findings elucidated how the precision of contextual predictions dynamically modulated social attention, offering insights into the computational and neurocognitive mechanisms of context-dependent social attention.