Cognitive perspective-taking may be defined as the ability to infer the thoughts or beliefs of another agent, while affective perspective-taking may be defined as the ability to infer the emotions or feelings of another agent. Perspective-taking is sometimes characterized along two dimensions: cognitive and affective. Despite such a fundamental role in today's society, however, there is still much to be learned about the cognitive and neural underpinnings of perspective-taking. For example, an individual's perspective-taking capacity is known to predict the size of one's social network ( 1, 2), and empathy is known to predict altruistic giving, prosocial behavior, and overall life satisfaction ( 3– 5). Perhaps unsurprisingly then, both perspective-taking and empathy are critical in guiding successful social interactions, effective communication, and prosocial behavior. Previous work has shown that perspective-taking is closely related to and a key aspect of human empathy, which refers to the ability to internally simulate and adopt the mental states of others. Perspective-taking is a complex and multifaceted sociocognitive process that enables us to recognize and appreciate another person's point of view, whether it be the same or different from our own. We conclude with a critique of the current literature, with a focus on the different outcome measures used across studies and misconceptions due to imprecise terminology, as well as recommendations for future research. Overall results indicate that cognitive perspective-taking is dependent on executive functioning (particularly mental set switching), while affective perspective-taking is less so. While it is clear that affective perspective-taking requires emotional substrates that are less prominent in cognitive perspective-taking, it remains unknown to what extent executive functions (including working memory, mental set switching, and inhibitory control) may contribute to each process. To corroborate these findings, we also examine if cognitive and affective perspective-taking share the same relationship with executive functions. Differences are also observed in prefrontal cortex: while affective perspective-taking engages ventromedial prefrontal cortex, cognitive perspective-taking engages dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). For example, while both types of perspective-taking engage regions such as the temporoparietal junction, precuneus, and temporal poles, only affective perspective-taking engages regions within the limbic system and basal ganglia.
Data suggest that there are both shared and non-shared cognitive and anatomic substrates.
In this paper, we review data from functional imaging studies in healthy adults as well as behavioral and structural imaging studies in patients with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia in order to determine if there are distinct neural correlates for cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Here, we define cognitive perspective-taking as the ability to infer an agent's thoughts or beliefs, and affective perspective-taking as the ability to infer an agent's feelings or emotions. While the two components of empathy have been frequently compared, the differences between cognitive and affective perspective-taking have been under-investigated in the cognitive neuroscience literature to date. Crucial to the development of interpersonal relationships and prosocial behavior, perspective-taking is closely linked to human empathy, and like empathy, perspective-taking is commonly subdivided into cognitive and affective components.
Perspective-taking refers to the ability to recognize another person's point of view.
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