Humans experience vicarious embarrassment when they observe other's mishaps in public settings, even when the protagonist is not embarrassed at all. Though neural correlates of vicarious embarrassment have been studied before, it is yet poorly understood how they are influenced by egocentric or allocentric processes of perspective-taking. In the present study we examined the effects of deliberate allocentric and egocentric perspectives during the evaluation of others' public mishaps that pose a threat to the protagonist's reputation. Forty-three participants were shown sketches depicting a protagonist's mishaps and were asked to rate either their own vicarious embarrassment as observers (egocentric perspective) or the protagonist's embarrassment (allocentric perspective). Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we found that observing others' mishaps engaged the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex, irrespective of the adopted mental perspective. Further, as part of the mentalizing network, the right middle temporal gyrus and right temporo-parietal junction were exclusively engaged when participants adopted an allocentric perspective while observing others' mishaps. Activation within bilateral areas of the inferior parietal cortex extending to the somatosensory cortex varied as a function of the protagonist's awareness of the blunder and the adopted perspective. In this study, we for the first time dissociate regions within the mentalizing network that contribute to a rather spontaneous versus a rather deliberate and motivated act of understanding other's mental states in the context of vicarious embarrassment.

当人们在公共场合看到他人的不幸时，即使主角一点也不尴尬，人们也会感到尴尬。尽管以前已经研究了替代性尴尬的神经相关性，但人们对它们如何受到以自我为中心或同心为中心的观点获取过程的影响知之甚少。在本研究中，我们在评估对主人公声誉构成威胁的其他公共灾难期间，研究了有意识的同心心和自我中心观点的影响。向四十三名参与者展示了描绘主角不幸经历的草图，并被要求对他们自己作为观察员的替代性尴尬（以自我为中心的观点）或主角的尴尬（以种族中心的观点）进行评分。使用功能磁共振成像，我们发现，观察他人的不幸事件与前岛，前扣带回皮层和内侧额叶前皮层有关，而与所采用的心理观点无关。此外，作为心理网络的一部分，当参与者在观察他人不幸的同时，采用同心圆的观点时，右中颞回和右颞顶交界就被专门从事。下顶叶皮层的双侧区域内延伸到体感皮层的激活因主角对失误的认识和所采用的观点而异。在这项研究中，我们首次分离了心理化网络中的区域，这些区域促成一种相当自发的，相对故意的，有动机的理解他人行为的区域。