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

社会世界的成功谈判至少在一定程度上取决于具有代表性的心理理论(RTM)--日常理解他人的行为是由内心的心理状态引起的，如他们的信仰、欲望和意图。在明确的实验室任务中使用RTM的能力，以及在日常社交环境中使用RTM的能力，在学龄前几年以一种全世界都相同的发展模式出现。这种发展模式的普遍性提出了一种假设，即RTM可能依赖于神经生物学系统的成熟，使儿童能够从他们的社会经验中获得RTM概念。在我们过去的工作中，我们已经证明了两个神经生物学系统的发育与RTM的发育有关：背侧内侧前额叶皮质(DMPFC)和多巴胺(DA)。本提案的目的是描述这两个系统对这一基本社会认知发展的功能意义。

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.