The developmental origins of social interaction processing in the human brain

人类是高度社会化的生物，生活在复杂的群体中。人类大脑面临的一个主要挑战是使我们能够有效地驾驭这种复杂的社会环境并从中受益。这个项目将检查大脑系统的早期发展，使我们能够处理和学习第三人称的社会互动。研究人员将调查婴儿时期的大脑、认知和行为发展，特别关注观察社会互动。通过揭示早期婴儿社会和认知发展的大脑过程，这项研究将填补我们知识上的一个重要空白，并对理解健康和非典型发展具有广泛的意义。该项目本质上是多学科的，因为它采用了结合神经科学、行为和经验抽样方法的尖端方法。这些发现将广泛适用于多个学科，并将为大脑、认知和社会科学提供信息。计划中的实验将为学生提供宝贵的研究机会和独特的训练。该项目对早期教育和干预具有启示意义，并可能有助于指导有关婴幼儿发展的公共政策决定。目前的项目测试了一个假设，即前额叶和颞叶皮层的大脑系统在婴儿期开始专门处理第三人称社会互动。为此，该项目将(i)使用多方法神经成像方法检查婴儿时期社会互动神经处理的发育变化，（ii）评估该大脑系统的特征和功能，（iii）在纵向研究中调查该大脑系统出现的变异性和经验的作用。揭示婴儿期社会互动处理的神经发育根源将产生广泛的影响，因为它以深刻的方式告知我们对人性和认知的理解，并有可能激发对人类和机器社会智能的进一步研究。通过这个项目和它的发现，将有可能促进公众更好地理解早期社会发展的重要性，以及大脑发育和经验所起的作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Humans are intensely social beings who live in complex groups. One major challenge for the human brain is to enable us to effectively navigate and benefit from this complex social environment. This project will examine the early development of the brain systems that enable us to process and learn from third-person social interactions. The researchers will investigate brain, cognitive and behavioral development during infancy with a specific focus on observing social interactions. By revealing how brain processes underpinning early infant social and cognitive development unfold, this research will fill an important gap in our knowledge and has broad implications for understanding healthy and atypical development. The project is multidisciplinary in nature as it uses a cutting-edge approach combining neuroscience, behavioral and experience-sampling methods. The findings will be broadly applicable to multiple disciplines and will inform the brain, cognitive and social sciences. The planned experiments will provide valuable research opportunities and unique training for students. The project has implications for early education, intervention and may help guide public policy decisions concerning infant and child development.The current project tests the hypothesis that brain systems in prefrontal and temporal cortex begin to specialize in third-person social interaction processing during infancy. To this end, this project will (i) examine developmental changes in the neural processing of social interactions during infancy using a multi-method neuroimaging approach, (ii) assess the characteristics and functions of this brain system, (iii) investigate variability and the role of experience in the emergence of this brain system in a longitudinal study. Uncovering the neurodevelopmental roots of social interaction processing in infancy will have a wide-ranging impact as it informs our understanding of human nature and cognition in profound ways and has the potential to inspire further research into social intelligence in man and machines. Through this project and its findings it will be possible to foster a better understanding among the public of how important early social development occurs and what role brain development and experience plays.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.