Predicting Theory of Mind in children from the infant connectome

Abstract

Our ability to reason about other peoples mental states, labeled Theory of Mind (ToM), is critical for successful human interaction. Despite its importance for human cognition, early predictors of individual ToM development are lacking. Here, we trained a computational model to identify whole-brain connectivity patterns predictive of joint attention, from resting-state fMRI data of 8-15-month-old infants, and tested whether the identified connectome would also predict ToM capacity later in development. First, the model significantly predicted joint attention scores in an independent infant sample. Crucially, the identified connectome did indeed predict ToM in children aged 2-5 years. The default network and its interaction with the ventral attention network formed dominant connections of the network, suggesting that the interplay of bottom-up attention and higher-order cognition paves the way for mature social cognition. These findings provide an early marker for individual differences in social cognitive development, with high potential for the early diagnosis of social cognitive disorders.