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Updated: May 11, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotion Regulation
Published on: August 26, 2011
Ongoing neural development of affective theory of mind in adolescence
Nora C Vetter1, Sarah Weigelt2, Katrin Döhnel3
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, and Neuroimaging Center, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Science and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Cambridge, MA, USA, Department of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany, and Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland nora.vetter@tu-dresden.de.
Abstract:
Affective Theory of Mind (ToM), an important aspect of ToM, involves the understanding of affective mental states. This ability is critical in the developmental phase of adolescence, which is often related with socio-emotional problems. Using a developmentally sensitive behavioral task in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study investigated the neural development of affective ToM throughout adolescence. Eighteen adolescent (ages 12-14 years) and 18 young adult women (aged 19-25 years) were scanned while evaluating complex affective mental states depicted by actors in video clips. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) showed significantly stronger activation in adolescents in comparison to adults in the affective ToM condition. Current results indicate that the vmPFC might be involved in the development of affective ToM processing in adolescence.
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