Development of the Social Brain: From Mechanisms to Principles

Abstract

In this concluding chapter, we take a broad survey of the themes emphasized in the other chapters. What are the key challenges in understanding social brain development? What would count as a full understanding of this topic? And how can we sketch a future path to get us there? We propose that studies limited to only the adult brain will not get us there, but that even detailed developmental studies may not. The path of developmental social neuroscience will need to augment its study with comparative research, with multiple modalities of investigation, and with more emphasis on data sharing and abstraction of principles. Attention to these issues can help to forge a truly cumulative and cross‐disciplinary developmental social neuroscience.