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Abstract

In this talk I will present findings from three of my major research strands. The first part will focus on the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the development of decision-making in social and economic settings. Using paradigms derived from economic-game theory, I will show that the development of both prosocial behavior and the ability to delay gratification depends on the increased ability to exert behavioural control in the moment of making a decision and the concurrent maturation of associated neural pathways such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). In the second part I will explore the development of overcoming egocentric tendencies when making judgments of others’ emotional states. I will present a series of newly developed paradigms suited to studying emotional egocentricity over a range of domains (i.e. touch, reward, and taste). I will show that the recruitment of right supramarginal gyrus is crucial for overcoming emotional egocentricity bias in adults, that its reduced activation explains increased egocentricity in children and that in Asperger patients this ability remains intact. Finally, I will explore the development of social emotions such as envy and Schadenfreude in ontogeny and compare this to their emergence in our closest living relatives, the chimpanzee. I will close with a discussion of the role of domain-general processes in the development of social behavior and an outlook on my future research agenda.