Over the past decade, fMRI research has made significant progress identifying functional divisions of labor within the adult “social brain." For example, in human adults, distinct networks of brain regions are recruited to reason about the bodies (physical sensations) and minds (mental states) of others. The current study characterizes the developmental trajectory of these two functionally specialized networks, and tests for relationships between functional specialization of these networks and behavioral developments in reasoning about the minds of others (“Theory of Mind”, ToM). 122 children ages three to twelve years old, in addition to a group of adults (n=33), watched a short, animated movie while undergoing fMRI. The movie highlights the physical feelings (often pain) and mental states (beliefs, desires, emotions) of the main characters, and is engaging for even the youngest children. By conducting interregional correlation analyses and reverse correlation analyses, we find evidence that 1) ToM and pain networks are functionally distinct by age three years, 2) functional specialization increases throughout childhood, and 3) functional maturity of each network is related to increasingly anti-correlated responses between the two networks. Further, these data provide evidence that a well-studied milestone in ToM behavioral development, passing explicit false-belief tasks, does not correspond with dramatic changes in the neural basis for reasoning about the minds of others.

UPCOMING COG LUNCH TALKS

• 3/7/17 Meilin, Zhan, Levy Lab
• 3/21/17 Kevin Woods, McDermott Lab
• 4/4/17 Wiktor Mlynarski, McDermott Lab
• 4/25/17 Kelsey Allen, Tenenbaum Lab
• 5/2/17 Josh Rule, Tenenbaum Lab
• 5/9/17 Julia Leonard, Schulz/Gabrieli Labs
• 5/16/17 Max Kleiman-Weiner, Tenenbaum Lab