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Continuity in the neural system supporting children's theory of mind development: Longitudinal links between task-independent EEG and task-dependent fMRI.

Continuity in the neural system supporting children's theory of mind development: Longitudinal links between task-independent EEG and task-dependent fMRI.

Authors :
Bowman LC
Dodell-Feder D
Saxe R
Sabbagh MA
Source :
Developmental cognitive neuroscience [Dev Cogn Neurosci] 2019 Dec; Vol. 40, pp. 100705. Date of Electronic Publication: 2019 Sep 16.
Publication Year :
2019

Abstract

Children's explicit theory of mind (ToM) understandings change over early childhood. We examined whether there is longitudinal stability in the neurobiological bases of ToM across this time period. A previous study found that source-localized resting EEG alpha attributable to the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and right temporoparietal junction (RTPJ) was associated with children's performance on a battery of theory of mind tasks. Here, we investigated a small subset of children (Nā€‰=ā€‰12) in that original study as a preliminary investigation of whether behavioral measures of ToM performance, and/or EEG localized to the DMPFC or RTPJ predicted ToM-specific fMRI responses 3.5 years later. Results showed that preschoolers' behavioral ToM-performance positively predicted later ToM-specific fMRI responses in the DMPFC. Preschoolers' resting EEG attributable to the DMPFC also predicted later ToM-specific fMRI responses in the DMPFC. Given the small sample, results represent a first exploration and require replication. Intriguingly, they suggest that early maturation of the area of the DMPFC related to ToM reasoning is positively linked with its specific recruitment for ToM reasoning later in development, affording implications for characterizing conceptual ToM development, and its underlying neural supports.<br /> (Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1878-9307
Volume :
40
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
31593908
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2019.100705