Understanding Other Minds: What Happens in Our Brains When We Interact With People?

Abstract

AGE: 13 Think about a conversation you had recently. Could you tell whether it was going well or poorly? How did you know whether the other person was interested in what you had to say? The ability to imagine what someone might be thinking or feeling (known as mentalizing) probably plays a large part in what makes a social interaction successful. We know that certain brain regions are involved when we are asked what someone might be thinking, but do we engage these “mentalizing brain regions” whenever we interact with others, or just when something reminds us to think about thoughts? This question can only be answered by studies that make participants feel like they are in a real social interaction. Therefore, we designed an experiment in which children believed they were interacting with a partner while getting their brains scanned.