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The DOI matches its Crossref record; 79 of the 79 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Development of the social brain from age three to twelve years

Open access
Richardson, Hilary, Lisandrelli, Grace, Riobueno-Naylor, Alexa, Saxe, Rebecca·2018·Nature Communications

Abstract

Human adults recruit distinct networks of brain regions to think about the bodies and minds of others. This study characterizes the development of these networks, and tests for relationships between neural development and behavioral changes in reasoning about others’ minds (‘theory of mind’, ToM). A large sample of children (n = 122, 3–12 years), and adults (n = 33), watched a short movie while undergoing fMRI. The movie highlights the characters’ bodily sensations (often pain) and mental states (beliefs, desires, emotions), and is a feasible experiment for young children. Here we report three main findings: (1) ToM and pain networks are functionally distinct by age 3 years, (2) functional specialization increases throughout childhood, and (3) functional maturity of each network is related to increasingly anti-correlated responses between the networks. Furthermore, the most studied milestone in ToM development, passing explicit false-belief tasks, does not correspond to discontinuities in the development of the social brain.

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Metadata

Authors
Richardson, H., Lisandrelli, G., Riobueno-Naylor, A., & Saxe, R.
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2018-03-12
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
1027-1027
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2792496527
Cited by
336
References
79
FWCI
58.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
gold

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Development of the social brain from age three to twelve years. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1038/s41467-018-03399-2
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Richardson, H., Lisandrelli, G., Riobueno-Naylor, A., & Saxe, R. (2018). Development of the social brain from age three to twelve years. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03399-2

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