Metaminds: Using metarepresentation to model minds in translation

Addressing the other is fundamental to translation studies. Language is the unique human capacity for interaction by transferring meaning, emotions and attitudes to another mind. The translator has to understand the auther's intentions behind the communication in order to correctly interpret and adapt her message for the target audience. One of the most interesting features of translation is this double metarepresentation of author and audience.

The aim of this paper is (1) to conceptualise translation as higher-order metarepresentation and (2) to show empirically that the permanent taking and giving of other's perspectives shapes the translator's mind.

I shall begin with outlining why translation is an intensive mental interaction, and how previous literature has dealt with the translator's mental interaction with the two others. After introducing the concept of attributive metacognition, or Theory of Mind (ToM), I shall review the literature on how translation trains attributive metacognition. If translation really is such a highly demanding task in terms of attributive metacognition, translators should have a better ToM than non-translators. I set up an fMRI experiment to study this question.

The results show an important activation in the precuneus for both groups. Labelled as ``the mind's eye'' (Fletcher 1995), the precuneus is the region that subserves the representation of the self in relationship with the outside world (Cavanna 2006) as well as perspectives contrary to our own (Bruneau 2010).