Cultural effects on the neural basis of theory of mind

"Theory of mind" has been described as the ability to attribute and understand other people's desires and intentions as distinct from one's own. It has been found to develop as early as between 3 and 4 years old, with precursor abilities possibly developing much earlier. There has been debate about the extent to which the developmental trajectory of theory of mind may differ across cultures or language systems. Although very few neuroimaging studies have directly compared different groups from different culture and language systems, across studies of a number of cultural/language groups have been used to explore the neural correlates of theory of mind. A summary of these findings suggests that there may be both universal and culture or language-specific neural correlates related to theory of mind. These studies, while still preliminary in many ways, illustrate the importance of taking into account the cultural background of participants. Furthermore these results suggest that there may be important cultural influence on theory of mind and the neural correlates associated with this ability.