Neural correlates of false belief understanding in 33- to 36-month-old infants

Very little research has addressed the neural correlates of false belief understanding in young children. Following up on a previous event-related potential (ERP) study examining false belief understanding in 4- to 6-year-old children, the present study grouped infants (N = 45, 33–36 months old) into passers and failers according to their behavioral performance on a low-demands false belief task. Their ERP responses to false belief and true belief conditions were examined in a novel ERP paradigm. The study found that a late positive waveform over the occipital electrode sites distinguished between the false belief and true belief conditions only in infants who passed the low-demands behavioral false belief task. In contrast, a late negative waveform over the frontocentral electrode sites consistently distinguished between the false belief and true belief conditions regardless of low-demands behavioral false belief task performance. These findings raise the possibility that a sensitive neural system supporting false belief understanding may emerge early in development. Specifically, the late positive waveform observed over the occipital electrode sites appears to be a potential neural marker for false belief understanding in infants.