Child and Animal Learning Development

Functional specialisation across the first five years of life: a longitudinal characterisation of social perception with fNIRS

This study uses fNIRS to track brain responses to social stimuli in infants over five years, finding age-dependent specialisation in auditory social processing.

Neonatal mimicry of caregivers at home: feasibility of an asynchronous online paradigm

This study assesses the feasibility of using an asynchronous online platform to study neonatal mimicry of caregivers, finding preliminary evidence against mimicry of tongue protrusions and inconclusive results for mouth openings.

Whom Do We Prefer to Learn From in Observational Reinforcement Learning?

This study investigates preferences in observational learning, finding that participants prefer low-noise individuals and that learning styles influence partner selection in social learning.

A Rational Information Gathering Account of Infant Habituation

This paper presents a computational theory of infant gaze based on rational information gathering, showing that gaze preference is nonmonotonic with exposure due to the interplay of stimulus informativeness and future utility.

Longitudinal Habituation and Novelty Detection neural responses from infancy to early childhood in The Gambia and UK

The paper presents longitudinal fNIRS data on habituation and novelty detection in infants from The Gambia and UK, showing distinct developmental patterns across age and cultural contexts.

Pupil responses to social stimuli are associated with adaptive behaviors across the first 24 months of life

This study links pupil responses to social stimuli with adaptive behaviors in infants aged 6-24 months using SESAMI and pupillometry.

Object permanence in domestic cats (Felis catus) using violation-of-expectancy by owner and stranger

This study tests object permanence in domestic cats using visible and invisible displacement tasks, finding that cats show different behaviors based on person familiarity and trial type.

Expectation Violations as an Effective Alternative to Complex Mentalizing in Novel Communication

This study shows that expectancy violations can be as effective as complex mentalizing in novel communication, with faster reaction times and comparable accuracy.

Endogenous oscillatory rhythms and interactive contingencies jointly influence infant attention during early infant-caregiver interaction

The paper investigates how endogenous oscillatory rhythms and interactive contingencies influence infant attention during caregiver-infant interactions, finding that intrinsic cognitive processes, not caregiver behaviors, primarily control attention.

Infant EEG microstate dynamics relate to fine-grained patterns of infant attention during naturalistic play with caregivers

The paper links infant EEG microstate D/4 duration to attentional control during play, showing associations with joint attention and sustained attention.

Spontaneous biases enhance generalisation in the neonate brain

This study shows neonate animals use innate biases for generalisation, consistent with a Bayesian model, without relying on experience or reinforcement.

Overlapping Neural Correlates Underpin Theory of Mind and Semantic Cognition: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis of 344 Functional Neuroimaging Studies

This study investigates the overlap between neural correlates of theory of mind and semantic cognition using a meta-analysis of 344 functional neuroimaging studies, finding significant overlap in the anterior temporal lobe and temporoparietal junction.

Parent attention-orienting behavior is associated with neural entropy in infancy

The paper examines the link between parent attention-orienting behavior and neural entropy in 8-month-old infants during social interactions.

Gaze patterns and brain activations in humans and marmosets in the Frith-Happe; theory-of-mind animation task

This study compares gaze patterns and brain activations in humans and marmosets during ToM and Random Frith-Happe animations, finding similar processing differences.

Mentalizing in an economic games context is associated with enhanced activation and connectivity in left temporoparietal junction

The paper investigates neural activity during economic games and false-belief tasks, finding overlapping activation and connectivity in social cognition regions.

No evidence of theory of mind reasoning in the human language network

The paper examines the relationship between language processing and theory of mind (ToM) using fMRI, finding that language network responses to ToM tasks are largely due to linguistic confounds rather than neural overlap.

The Role of the Ventrolateral Anterior Temporal Lobes in Social Cognition

This study uses fMRI to show that ventrolateral anterior temporal lobe (ATL) is involved in social cognition through semantic processing, not as a domain-specific social module.

Differential tracking of linguistic vs. mental state content in naturalistic stimuli by language and Theory of Mind (ToM) brain networks

The paper investigates how language and Theory of Mind networks track linguistic and mental state content in naturalistic stimuli using fMRI.

Social prediction modulates activity of macaque superior temporal cortex

The paper identifies a brain region in Rhesus macaques that shows computational properties similar to the human temporo-parietal junction, modulated by social interaction predictability.

Temporo-Parietal Cortex Involved in Modeling One's Own and Others' Attention

This study uses fMRI to show the human brain encodes others' attention as either exogenous or endogenous, distinguishing self from other agents.

Newborns' sensitivity to speed changes as a building block for animacy perception

This study investigates whether newborns show attentional bias toward objects with speed changes, suggesting a foundational mechanism for animacy perception.

Developmental asymmetries in learning to adjust to cooperative and uncooperative environments

The paper shows that cooperative social learning improves with age, while uncooperative learning remains stable, highlighting early adolescence as a critical period for social behavior development.

Comparing self- and hetero-metacognition in the absence of verbal communication

This study compares self- and hetero-metacognition in the absence of verbal communication, finding that participants accurately infer others' confidence levels as they do their own.

Cortical temporal hierarchy is immature in middle childhood

This study examines cortical temporal hierarchy development in middle childhood, finding reduced long timescale processing in key brain regions and its link to social-cognitive abilities.

Theory of Minds: Managing mental state inferences in working memory is associated with the dorsomedial subsystem of the default network and social integration

The paper investigates how the brain manages multiple mental states in working memory and links this ability to social integration through neural activity in the dorsomedial default network.

I know that I don’t know: Structural and functional connectivity underlying meta-ignorance in pre-schoolers

The paper identifies brain regions and connectivity patterns associated with the development of meta-ignorance in preschoolers.

Young children combine sensory cues with learned information in a statistically efficient manner: But task complexity matters

This study shows 6-7-year-olds can combine sensory cues with learned regularities statistically efficiently, but task complexity affects their performance more than adults.

Young Children Integrate Current Observations, Priors and Agent Information to Build Predictive Models of Others’ Actions

This study shows 24-month-olds integrate observations, priors, and agent information to build predictive models of others' actions, as measured by pupillary responses and explained by a computational model.

Towards a neuroscientific understanding of play: A neuropsychological coding framework for analysing infant-adult play patterns

The paper introduces a neuropsychological coding framework to analyze adult-infant play patterns across sensorimotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional dimensions, demonstrating its ability to distinguish playful from non-playful interactions.