RSS Feeds

Earth Science

Space Science

Life Science

Fields of Scientific Study

Nanotechnology

Cancer

Definitions of The Fields of Scientific Study

Study sheds light on social brain development

July 15, 2009

The capacity to figure out what others are thinking and what they mean is an ability unique to people that's central to our lives. A new study on the neural mechanisms that govern these abilities sheds light on the relation between how people and groups interact, on the one hand, and how the brain develops and functions, on the other.

The study, in the July/August 2009 issue of the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at Queen's University at Kingston in Ontario, Canada.

In the preschool years, children develop social skills by learning how to understand others' thoughts and feelings, or their theory of mind. In most children, theory of mind changes over time so they come to understand that others' thoughts are representations of the world that may or may not match the way the world actually is. In their study of EEGs of 29 4-year-olds, the researchers found that these changes are related to the functional development of two parts of the brain-the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex and the temporal-parietal juncture-that govern similar understanding in adults.

"For a while now, we have known that specific brain areas are used when adults think about others' thoughts," according to Mark A. Sabbagh, associate professor of psychology at Queen's University at Kingston and the study's lead author. "Our findings are the first to show that these specialized neural circuits may be there as early as the preschool years, and that maturational changes in these areas are associated with preschoolers' abilities to think about their social world in increasingly sophisticated ways.

"In helping us understand how the typical social brain develops, the findings also provide clues as to what happens when social reasoning is impaired, as occurs in autism," Sabbagh added.

Society for Research in Child Development

Related Neural Mechanism Current Events and Neural Mechanism News Articles

Neural Mechanism Current Events and Neural Mechanism News RSS

Brain cell mechanism for decision making also underlies judgment about certainty
Countless times a day people judge their confidence in a choice they are about to make -- that they now can safely turn left at this intersection, that they aren't sure of their answer on a quiz, that their hot coffee has cooled enough to drink.

New study by Rice University psychologist finds women's brains recognize, encode smell of male sexual sweat
A new Rice University study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that socioemotional meanings, including sexual ones, are conveyed in human sweat.

Is that song sexy or just so-so?
Why is your mate's rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get it On" cute and sexy sometimes and so annoying at other times? A songbird study conducted by Emory University sheds new light on this question, showing that a change in hormone levels may alter the way we perceive social cues by altering a system of brain nuclei, common to all vertebrates, called the "social behavior network."

Distinguishing between 2 birds of a feather
The bird enthusiast who chronicled the adventures of a flock of red-headed conures in his book "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" knows most of the parrots by name, yet most of us would be hard pressed to tell one bird from another.

Researchers discover second depth-perception method in brain
It's common knowledge that humans and other animals are able to visually judge depth because we have two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that feat.

UCLA researchers show that culture influences brain cells
A thumb's up for "I'm good." The rubbing of a pointed forefinger at another for "shame on you." The infamous and ubiquitous middle finger salute for-well, you know.

Evidence that subliminal is not so 'sub'
The popular notion of subliminal information is that it streams into an unguarded mind, unchecked and unprocessed. However, neurobiologists' experiments are now revealing that the brain does consciously process subliminal information and that such processing influences how that subliminal information is perceived.

MIT provides first evidence for learning mechanism
Finally confirming a fact that remained unproven for more than 30 years, researchers at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory report in the Aug. 25 issue of Science that certain key connections among neurons get stronger when we learn.

Mapping the neural landscape of hunger
The compelling urge to satisfy one's hunger enlists structures throughout the brain, as might be expected in a process so necessary for survival.

UCLA imaging study of children with autism finds broken mirror neuron system
New imaging research at UCLA detailed Dec. 4 as an advance online publication of the journal Nature Neuroscience shows children with autism have virtually no activity in a key part of the brain's mirror neuron system while imitating and observing emotions.

More Neural Mechanism Current Events and Neural Mechanism News Articles

	The Essential Hypertension and Its Causes: Neural and Non-Neural Mechanisms by Paul I. Korner (Author) This new account of the pathogenesis of essential hypertension (EH) represents a detailed analysis of the main components of the circulatory control system. The latter's properties resemble those of man-made adaptive control systems in which regulatory parameters are altered when operating conditions exceed certain limits, often through neural mechanisms. Inheritance of EH depends on both genes and environment. The high blood pressure (BP) genes have not yet been definitively identified, whilst the main environmental causes are mental stress, high dietary salt intake and obesity. EH occurs as two major syndromes, each initiated by chronic stress: 1) Stress-and-salt related EH, and 2) Hypertensive obesity. Stress is perceived by the cortex, from which increased dopaminergic...
	Head Direction Cells and the Neural Mechanisms of Spatial Orientation (Bradford Books) by Sidney I. Wiener (Editor), Jeffrey S. Taube (Editor) Head direction cells—neurons that fire only when an animal orients its head in a certain direction—are found in several different brain areas, with different neurons selective for different head orientations; they are influenced by landmarks as well as motor and vestibular information concerning how the head moves through space. These properties suggest that head direction cells play an important role in determining orientation in space and in navigation. Moreover, the prominence, strength, and clarity of head direction signals indicate their importance over the course of evolution and suggest that they can serve as a vital key for understanding brain function. This book presents the latest findings on head direction cells in a comprehensive treatment that will be a valuable reference...
	The Sensory Hand: Neural Mechanisms of Somatic Sensation by Vernon B. Mountcastle (Author) The hand is an organ of considerable capability. With it we feel, point, and reach, we determine the texture and shape of objects we palpate, we emit and receive signs of approval, compassion, condolence, and encouragement, and, on a different register, rejection, threat, dislike, antagonism, and attack. Vernon Mountcastle has devoted his career to studying the neurophysiology of sensation--the extended sensory surface, consisting of skin and subcutaneous tissue--in the hand. In The Sensory Hand Mountcastle provides an astonishingly comprehensive account of the neural underpinnings of the rich and complex tactile experiences evoked by stimulation of the hand. Mountcastle focuses attention on the nerve pathways linking the hand to central neural structures, structures that...
	Psychological and Neural Mechanisms of Pain by Donald D. Price (Author)
	Neural Mechanisms and Biological Significance of Grooming Behavior (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences) by Deborah L. Colbern (Author), Willem Hendrik Gispen (Editor)
	Current research approaches to neural mechanisms of learning and memory: Preliminary report on a conference held at Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California by Irving S Bengelsdorf (Author)
	Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia (Contemporary Clinical Neuroscience) by Joseph E. Antognini (Editor) Univ. of California, Davis. Comprehensive text critically reviews recent research on anesthetic mechanisms, highlighting the precise routes along which substances operate, and how a deeper understanding leads to the design of effective drugs with little or no side effects. Contains halftone illustrations. DNLM: Anesthetics--pharmacology.
	Neural Mechanisms of Learning and Memory by Mark R. Rosenzsweig (Editor), Edward L. Bennett (Editor)
	Neural Mechanisms of Startle Behavior by Robert C. Eaton (Author)
	Empathy examined through the neural mechanisms involved in imagining how I feel versus how you feel pain [An article from: Neuropsychologia] by P.L. Jackson (Author), E. Brunet (Author), A.N. Meltzoff (Author), J. Decety (Author) This digital document is a journal article from Neuropsychologia, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Description: Perspective-taking is a stepping stone to human empathy. When empathizing with another individual, one can imagine how the other perceives the situation and feels as a result. To what extent does imagining the other differs from imagining oneself in similar painful situations? In this functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, participants were shown pictures of people with their hands or feet in painful or non-painful situations and instructed to imagine and rate the level of pain perceived from different...