Theory of Mind (ToM) or mentalizing is a basic social skill which is characterized by our ability of perspective-taking and the understanding of cognitive and emotional states of others. ToM development is essential to successfully navigate in various social contexts. The neural basis of mentalizing is well-studied in adults, however, less evidence exists in children. Potential reasons are methodological challenges, including a lack of age-appropriate fMRI paradigms. We introduce a novel child-friendly and open-source ToM fMRI task, for which accuracy and performance were evaluated behaviorally in 60 children ages three to nine (32♂). Furthermore, 27 healthy young adults (14♂; mean = 25.41 years) and 33 children ages seven to thirteen (17♂; mean = 9.06 years) completed the Cognitive and Affective Theory of Mind Cartoon task (CAToon; www.jacobscenter.uzh.ch/en/research/developmental_neuroscience/downloads/catoon.html) during a fMRI session. Behavioral results indicate that children of all ages can solve the CAToon task above chance level, though reliable performance is reached around five years. Neurally, activation increases were observed for adults and children in brain regions previously associated with mentalizing, including bilateral temporoparietal junction, temporal gyri, precuneus and medial prefrontal/orbitofrontal cortices. We conclude that CAToon is suitable for developmental neuroimaging studies within an fMRI environment starting around preschool and up.

心智理论 (ToM) 或心智化是一种基本的社交技能，其特点是我们的换位思考能力以及对他人认知和情绪状态的理解能力。 ToM 开发对于在各种社会环境中成功导航至关重要。心理化的神经基础在成人中得到了充分研究，但在儿童中的证据较少。潜在的原因是方法上的挑战，包括缺乏适合年龄的功能磁共振成像范式。我们引入了一种新颖的儿童友好型开源 ToM fMRI 任务，对 60 名 3 至 9 岁 (32♂) 的儿童的准确性和表现进行了行为评估。此外，27 名健康的年轻人（14♂；平均 = 25.41 岁）和 33 名 7 至 13 岁的儿童（17♂；平均 = 9.06 岁）完成了认知和情感心理理论卡通任务（ CAToon； www. jacobscenter.uzh.ch/en/research/developmental_neuroscience/downloads/catoon.html）在功能磁共振成像会议期间。行为结果表明，所有年龄段的儿童都能以高于偶然水平的方式解决卡通任务，但可靠的表现在五年左右才能达到。在神经方面，观察到成人和儿童先前与心智化相关的大脑区域的激活增加，包括双侧颞顶交界处、颞回、楔前叶和内侧前额叶/眶额皮质。我们的结论是，CAToon 适合在学龄前及以上的 fMRI 环境中进行发育神经影像研究。