Neurocognitive mechanisms of developmental change in children's theory of mind

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Successful negotiation of the social world rests, at least in part, on having a representational theory of mind (RTM) -- the everyday understanding that other's actions are caused by internal mental states, such as their beliefs, desires and intentions. The ability to use an RTM in explicit laboratory tasks, and in everyday social settings emerges during the preschool years in a developmental pattern that is the same all over the world. The universality of this developmental pattern raises the hypothesis that RTM may rely on the maturation of neurobiological systems that enable children to acquire RTM concepts from their social experiences. In our past work, we have shown that the development of two neurobiological systems are linked to RTM development: the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) and dopamine (DA). The goal of the present proposal is to characterize the functional significance of these two systems to this fundamental social cognitive development.