Functional Recruitment of the Cerebellum Supports the Emergence of Theory of Mind in Early Childhood

COEX 

Although traditionally associated with motor processing, accumulating evidence suggests that the cerebellum is heavily implicated in social cognition, including Theory of Mind (ToM), i.e., the ability to infer the mental states of others (Frith & Frith, 2006). However, the role of the cerebellum in ToM development remains elusive, despite clinical evidence linking early-life cerebellar injury to dramatic and long-lasting social cognitive deficits (Olson et al., 2023). Here, we investigated the contribution of the cerebellum to the emergence of ToM in young children in the context of local functional activations and functional connectivity to the cerebral cortex. We expected to observe differences in the functional involvement of the cerebellum between children who have and have not yet developed ToM abilities, as well as between childhood and adulthood.