Why can a simple glance, a pointing gesture, or even an arrow instantly direct our attention? These cues are known as social referential signals and are among the most fundamental tools of human communication. They allow people to efficiently direct the attention of others toward individuals, objects, or abstract ideas. Understanding how the brain processes these signals is central to social neuroscience and has implications for the development of social communication, clinical conditions such as autism, and comparative research across species.

A collaborative research team led by Prof. JIANG Yi from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Prof. ZHU Lusha from Peking University has proposed a novel multi-level neurocognitive framework to explain how the brain processes social referential signals.

The researchers synthesized findings from multiple fields of study and, for the first time, proposed an integrative framework encompassing three levels of processing: innate, learned, and inferential.

The innate level operates from birth and relies on evolutionarily conserved neural pathways that make infants sensitive to social cues, such as eye contact. The learned level develops through experience and allows individuals to understand culturally acquired symbols, such as arrows or nicknames, through shared neural representations. The inferential level is crucial in ambiguous contexts and engages higher-order brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex, to infer others' intentions.

These three levels interact dynamically. Innate mechanisms provide the foundation for learning, and learned representations supply prior knowledge that supports flexible inference in novel situations.

"This framework not only explains how the brain processes social referential signals, but also represents an important step toward integrating traditionally separate lines of research in perception and decision-making," said Dr. YANG Fang, co-first author of the study.

The study, supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience on Feb. 25.