Neural Development of Cognitive Perspective Taking

Since the beginning of this century neuroscience methods have been applied to investigate social competence in adult subjects. These studies have revealed brain regions that are recruited when we ‘put ourselves in another person’s shoes’ to represent his or her knowledge or experience (taking a third-persons perspective) as compared to our knowledge or experience. We take a third person’s perspective, for instance when we try to appreciate what another person thinks about a particular topic or feels in a given situation. Taking a third-person perspective, as opposed to a first-person has been associated with brain activation in the inferior parietal cortex, the medial posterior cortex (posterior cingulated and precuneus) and the medial prefrontal cortex [1-4]. Despite the remarkable results from neuroscientific research on perspective taking in adults little has been done so far to explore the neuronal development of these functions in normal achieving children.

Given that neurodevelopment studies indicate that parietal and prefrontal areas are not fully mature until early adulthood, and brain imaging studies in adults report an involvement of these brain areas in perspective taking we hypothesize that perspective taking becomes increasingly efficient during adolescence.

The understanding of the neural bases of cognitive perspective taking will help to set up a training program for children with antisocial behavior, which might be more focused on the immaturity of the underlying neural processes than past interventions and/or prevention programs.

1.	Ruby, P. and J. Decety, Effect of subjective perspective taking during simulation of action: a PET investigation of agency. Nat Neurosci, 2001. 4(5): p. 546-50.
2.	Ruby, P. and J. Decety, What you believe versus what you think they believe: a neuroimaging study of conceptual perspective-taking. Eur J Neurosci, 2003. 17(11): p. 2475-80.
3.	Ruby, P. and J. Decety, How would you feel versus how do you think she would feel? A neuroimaging study of perspective-taking with social emotions. J Cogn Neurosci, 2004. 16(6): 4p. 988-99.
4.	Vogeley, K., et al., Mind reading: neural mechanisms of theory of mind and self-perspective. Neuroimage, 2001. 14(1 Pt 1): p. 170-81.

Keywords

Social cognition, perspective taking, fMRI, development

Collaborations

Prof. Lutz Jäncke, Institute of Psychology, Division Neuropsychology, University of Zurich

Contacts

Peter Klaver, PhD
peter.klavekispi.uzh.ch

Prof. Ernst Martin, MD
ernst.martinkispi.uzh.ch

Former collaborators

Mengia Dosch, Dr. des.
Thomas Loenneker, PhD

Duration of Project

Aug 2005 to Aug 2008

Publications

Dosch M, Loenneker T, Bucher K, Martin E, Klaver P. (2009). Learning to appreciate others: neural development of cognitive perspective taking. Neuroimage, Epub.