Recent evidence demonstrates that a region of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is selective to visually observed social interactions in adults. In contrast, little is known about neural responses to social interactions in children. Here, we used fMRI to ask whether the pSTS is ‘tuned’ to social interactions in children at all, and if so, how selectivity might differ from adults. This was investigated in the pSTS, along with several other socially-tuned regions in neighbouring temporal cortex: extrastriate body area, face selective STS, fusiform face area, and mentalizing selective temporo-parietal junction.

Both children and adults showed selectivity to social interaction within right pSTS, while only adults showed selectivity on the left. Adults also showed both more focal and greater selectivity than children (6–12 years) bilaterally. Exploratory sub-group analyses showed that younger children (6–8), but not older children (9–12), are less selective than adults on the right, while there was a continuous developmental trend (adults > older > younger) in left pSTS. These results suggest that, over development, the neural response to social interactions is characterized by increasingly more selective, focal, and bilateral pSTS responses, a process that likely continues into adolescence.

最近的证据表明，后颞上颞沟（pSTS）的一部分对成年人在视觉上观察到的社交互动具有选择性。相反，对于儿童对社交互动的神经反应知之甚少。在这里，我们使用功能磁共振成像来询问pSTS是否完全针对儿童中的社交互动进行了调整，如果是，那么选择性与成年人之间的差异可能会如何。在pSTS中，以及邻近颞皮层的其他几个社会调整区域中，对此进行了调查：超额躯体区域，面部选择性STS，梭形面部区域和心理选择性颞顶交界。

儿童和成年人在右侧pSTS中均表现出对社交互动的选择性，而只有成年人在左侧表现出选择性。与双侧儿童（6至12岁）相比，成年人也显示出更多的专注力和更大的选择性。探索性亚组分析显示，年龄较小的儿童（6-8岁），而不是年龄较大的儿童（9-12岁），比右侧的成年人选择性低，而左侧则有持续的发展趋势（成人>年龄大>年龄小） pSTS。这些结果表明，在过度发展中，对社交互动的神经反应的特征在于越来越多的选择性，局灶性和双边pSTS反应，这一过程可能持续到青春期。