Neural mechanisms for accepting and rejecting artificial social partners in the uncanny valley
Source record
rosenthal-von-der-putten-2019-vmpfc· 2019 · Journal of Neuroscience
Evidence tier: B (peer-reviewed-journal) · Verification: verified-fulltext
Bottom line: vmPFC encoded likability as a non-linear function of humanlikeness with selectively low likability for highly humanlike agents; behavioural valley in 18 of 21 participants; DMPFC encoded choices about artificial agents and an amygdala signal predicted their rejection.
Citation
Astrid M. Rosenthal-von der Pütten, Nicole C. Krämer, Stefan Maderwald, Matthias Brand, Fabian Grabenhorst (2019). Neural mechanisms for accepting and rejecting artificial social partners in the uncanny valley. Journal of Neuroscience, 39(33), 6555-6570. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2956-18.2019
Verification entry (identifiers, resolvers, claims with source locations): /data/citations.json#rosenthal-von-der-putten-2019-vmpfc
Study design
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Design | 7T fMRI over six sessions; rating task (72 trials: likability, familiarity, humanlikeness) and choice task (108 trials: choose which of two agents receives a personal gift) |
| Modality | image, robot, android |
| Stimuli | Six categories: humans, humans with impairments, artificial humans, androids, humanoid robots, mechanoid robots |
| Participants (N) | 21 |
| N detail | 26 recruited; 4 excluded |
| Topics | uncanny-valley, neural, decision-making |
Results
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Behavioural valley (artificial humans below linear trend) | significant in 18 of 21 individuals | |
| vmPFC | non-linear likability (valley) signal | approximated by multiplicative combination of TPJ, DMPFC, fusiform signals |
| TPJ | linear humanlikeness code | |
| DMPFC, fusiform | non-linear human/non-human distinction | |
| Choice decision variable | vmPFC for human choices; DMPFC for artificial-agent choices | |
| Amygdala | predicted rejection of artificial agents |
Mechanism relevance
valuation
Limitations
- N=21
- Static images
Cited in
- MR-0002: The Uncanny Valley and Synthetic Media: Does It Exist, What Causes It, and Have Deepfakes Crossed It?
Verification
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Status | verified-fulltext |
| Compiler confidence | high |
| Checked on | 2026-10-07 |
| Via | jneurosci.org article page |