Biology subjects

Grosse Wiesmann, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Grosse Wiesmann, C..

10 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Distinct cortical networks associated with subregions of the hippocampal-entorhinal system in the first two years of human life

Episodic memory critically depends on the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex. Despite a rapid developmental change in human episodic memory during the first two years of life, little is known about the developmental trajectory of the hippocampal-entorhinal circuitry during this critical time period. In the current study, we collected high-quality precision fMRI data from five typically developing infants over the time period between 1 and 2 years of life and examined, in great anatomical detail, the developmental profile of distinct parts of the infant hippocampal-entorhinal system and their coupling with distinct cortical networks. We show that already at around 1 year of age, subdivisions of the canonical default network (DN) are fully dissociated at the neocortex and are differently associated with the hippocampal-entorhinal system, with tentatively differential developmental trajectories. While the DN-A, associated with episodic simulation, coupled with the anterior hippocampus and the medial part of the entorhinal cortex, the DN-B, associated with social cognition, showed significantly weaker connectivity with the hippocampal-entorhinal system. Furthermore, the parietal memory network coupled with the posterior hippocampus and the lateral part of the entorhinal cortex. Exploratory longitudinal results suggest that associations of the DN-B with the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex increase towards the end of the second postnatal year, and the associations of the parietal memory network become more topographically restricted to the posterior hippocampus. These networks and their differential maturation may provide the basis for important developments in episodic memory and social cognition in the second postnatal year and suggest that potentially unique properties of human hippocampal-entorhinal circuitry may emerge latest in development.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

The cerebellum supports two systems for understanding others in early childhood

The cerebellum has increasingly been implicated in Theory of Mind (ToM), a hallmark of human social cognition. Yet its role in the development of social understanding remains poorly understood, despite evidence linking early cerebellar disruptions to profound social cognitive deficits. Although explicit ToM reasoning emerges only around four years of age, preverbal infants already excel at predicting others actions, raising the question of how the cerebellum supports social cognition early in development. Here, we investigated structural cerebellar correlates of ToM (explicit false belief understanding) and nonverbal action prediction in children aged 3-4 years, a critical developmental period during which explicit ToM emerges. Greater gray matter volume in Crus II, a core node of the adult cerebellar ToM network, was associated with better explicit ToM performance. By contrast, nonverbal action prediction was linked to distinct, non-overlapping clusters in inferior lobule VIIB and the posterior vermis, regions implicated in action observation and salience processing in adults. These cerebellar regions further exhibited dissociable patterns of covariance with cerebral networks, linking Crus II to the canonical ToM network and VIIB/vermal regions to salience-related areas. Our findings reveal neuroanatomically distinct cerebellar substrates supporting two separable components of early social cognition: one anchored to explicit mental-state reasoning and another to an earlier-emerging nonverbal action prediction system potentially grounded in the processing of salient social cues. Together, these findings identify the cerebellum as a key contributor to multiple stages of social cognitive development and suggest that distinct cerebellar systems scaffold the emergence of mature social understanding.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2026

Curiosity shapes brain-like architectures and functions

How does complex cognition emerge from simpler underlying processes? We show that two components are sufficient: infant-like curiosity and brain-like biophysical constraints jointly drive the emergence of complex neuronal architectures and cognitive abilities. We first tested curiosity-driven exploration in 275 8-to 15-month-old infants. We then implemented these mechanisms in artificial recurrent neural networks, letting them actively sample 20 cognitive tasks during training, while forcing the networks to operate under brain-like biophysical constraints. These two components were sufficient for a range of biological and cognitive phenomena to emerge: The resulting networks captured human synaptic development, the adult brains architecture, and displayed compositional generalisation, a hallmark of human cognition. Curiosity, long viewed as a downstream consequence of complex brains, is also a driver of their complexity.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Cerebellar growth is associated with domain-specific cerebral maturation and socio-linguistic behavioral outcomes

The cerebellums involvement in cognitive functions is increasingly recognized, yet its developmental contribution to cognition remains poorly understood. The cerebellum undergoes rapid development in early life, paralleling major cognitive and behavioral changes. Although clinical studies have linked early cerebellar disruptions to profound developmental deficits, it remains largely unclear how typical cerebellar maturation supports the development of cognitive functions and how it interacts with broader brain development. Here, we apply a normative modeling framework to map cerebellar volumetric growth from infancy to young adulthood (N = 751; ages 1-21 years). Using lobular and functional cerebellar parcellations, we comprehensively characterize typical cerebellar development and examine how it aligns with cerebral development and behavioral outcomes. Across parcellations, posterior higher association areas consistently show steeper growth trajectories than anterior sensorimotor areas. Cerebellar and cerebral areas with similar functional roles demonstrate coordinated maturation, and volumetric growth in the posterior cerebellum relates to individual differences in socio-linguistic behaviors. These findings establish a comprehensive reference for typical cerebellar development, highlight cerebellar co-maturation with the cerebral cortex, and underscore the cerebellums role in supporting emerging higher cognitive functions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Infants and adults neurally represent the perspective of others like their own perception

Perspective taking is central to human cognition and interaction. Preverbal infants already seem to consider the perspective of others, and adults do so continually, in parallel with other cognitively demanding tasks. Yet, the representational format in which others perspectives are implemented in the mind and brain remains unclear. We addressed this question by using a neural marker that provides a precise index of visual object processing. We presented adults and 12-14-months-old infants with objects flickering at 4 Hz, evoking phase-locked rhythmic activity at the exact same frequency over visual cortex that is highly specific of visually processing the flickering object. The object then became occluded from the participants view. Critically, in one condition another person continued to see the object, whereas in control conditions the observers view was blocked or no observer was present. Remarkably, both in adults and infants, the frequency-tagged neural response specific of own visual object processing persisted when their own view was blocked and only the other person could see the object, but not in either control condition. These findings provide direct neural evidence that representing another persons perspective engages our own perceptual object processing and demonstrate that this representational format is already present in infancy. TeaserFrequency-tagging shows that objects seen only by others activate ones own object-specific perception in adults and infants.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Modeling the connectome of joint attention in infancy predicts Theory of Mind in preschool-age

Our ability to reason about other peoples mental states, labeled Theory of Mind (ToM), is critical for successful human interaction. Despite its importance for human cognition, early predictors of individual ToM development are lacking. Here, we trained a computational model to identify whole-brain connectivity patterns predictive of joint attention, from resting-state fMRI data of 8-15-month-old infants, and tested whether the identified connectome would also predict ToM capacity later in development. First, the model significantly predicted joint attention scores in an independent infant sample. Crucially, the identified connectome did indeed predict ToM in children aged 2-5 years. The default network and its interaction with the ventral attention network formed dominant connections of the network, suggesting that the interplay of bottom-up attention and higher-order cognition paves the way for mature social cognition. These findings provide an early marker for individual differences in social cognitive development, with high potential for the early diagnosis of social cognitive disorders.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

A dorsal versus ventral network for understanding others in the developing brain

Young children strongly depend on others, and learning to understand their mental states (referred to as Theory of Mind, ToM) is a key challenge of early cognitive development. Traditionally, ToM is thought to emerge around the age of 4 years. Yet, in non-verbal tasks, preverbal infants already seem to consider others mental states when predicting their actions. These early non-verbal capacities, however, seem fragile and distinct from later-developing verbal ToM. So far, little is known about the nature of these early capacities and the neural networks supporting them. To identify these networks, we investigated the maturation of nerve fiber connections associated with childrens correct non-verbal action prediction and compared them with connections supporting verbal ToM reasoning in 3- to 4-year-old children, that is, before and after their breakthrough in verbal ToM. This revealed a ventral network for non-verbal action prediction versus a dorsal network for verbal ToM. Non-verbal capacities were associated with maturational indices in ventral fiber tracts connecting regions of the salience network, involved in bottom-up social attention processes. In contrast, verbal ToM performance correlated with maturational indices of the arcuate fascicle and cingulum, which dorsally connect regions of the default network, involved in higher-order social cognitive processes including ToM in adults. As non-verbal tasks were linked to connections of the salience network, young children may make use of salient perceptual social cues to predict others actions, questioning theories of mature ToM before 4 years. SignificanceAs highly social beings, humans frequently reason about other peoples thoughts, termed Theory of Mind (ToM). While ToM is traditionally assumed not to emerge before 4 years, preverbal infants already seem to consider others thoughts when predicting their actions non-verbally. This raises the question of when ToM develops and what explains this discrepancy. We show that young childrens success in non-verbal tasks is related to different neural networks than those involved in mature verbal ToM. While verbal ToM was linked to ToM network connections, younger childrens non-verbal capacities were associated with the maturation of connections of the salience network. This indicates that, instead of mature ToM, young children might utilize salient social cues to predict others actions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Functional recruitment and connectivity of the cerebellum supports the emergence of Theory of Mind in early childhood

There is accumulating evidence that the human cerebellum is heavily implicated in adult social cognition. Yet, its involvement in the development of Theory of Mind (ToM), a hallmark of social cognition, remains elusive. In a functional MRI study involving children with emerging ToM abilities (N=41, age range: 3-12 years) and adults (N=78), we showed that children with ToM abilities activated cerebellar Crus I-II in response to ToM events during a movie-watching task, similar to adults. This activation was absent in children lacking ToM abilities. Functional connectivity profiles between cerebellar and cerebral ToM regions differed as a function of childrens ToM abilities. Notably, task-driven connectivity shifted from upstream to downstream connections between cerebellar and cerebral ToM regions from childhood to adulthood. Greater dependence on connections emerging from the cerebellum early in life suggests an important role of the cerebellum in establishing the cognitive processes underlying ToM in childhood and thus for the undisrupted development of social cognition.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Children's syntax is supported by the maturation of BA44 at 4 years, but of the posterior STS at 3 years of age

Within the first years of life, children learn major aspects of their native language. However, the ability to process complex sentence structures, a core faculty in human language called syntax, has been found to emerge only slowly. A milestone in the acquisition of syntax is reached around the age of 4, when children learn a variety of syntactic concepts, including, for example, subordinate clauses. Here, we ask which maturational changes in the childs brain underlie the emergence of syntactic abilities around this critical age. We relate markers of cortical brain maturation to 3- and 4-year-olds syntactic in contrast to other language abilities. Our results show that distinct cortical brain areas support syntax in the two age groups: While 3-year-old childrens syntactic abilities were associated with increased surface area in the most posterior part of the left superior temporal sulcus, 4-year-old children showed an association with cortical thickness in the left posterior part of Brocas area, i.e. BA44. The present findings suggest that syntactic abilities rely on the maturation of distinct cortical regions in 3- compared to 4-year-olds. The observed shift to more mature regions involved in syntax may underlie the behavioral milestones in syntax acquisition around 4 years of age.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Maturation of distinct neural components of the cognitive control network support early development of inhibitory control

Goal-directed behavior crucially relies on our capacity to suppress impulses and predominant behavioral responses. This ability, called inhibitory control, emerges in early childhood with marked improvements between 3 and 4 years. Here, we ask which brain structures are related to the emergence of this critical ability. Using a multimodal approach, we relate the pronounced behavioral improvements in different facets of 3-and 4-year-olds (N = 37, 20 female) inhibitory control to structural indices of maturation in the developing brain assessed with MRI. Our results show that cortical and subcortical structure of core regions in the adult cognitive control network, including the PFC, thalamus, and the inferior parietal cortices, are associated with early inhibitory functioning in preschool children. Probabilistic tractography revealed an association of frontoparietal (i.e., the superior longitudinal fascicle) and thalamocortical connections with early inhibitory control. Notably, these associations to brain structure were distinct for different facets of early inhibitory control, often referred to as motivational ( hot) and cognitive ( cold) inhibitory control. Our findings thus reveal the structural brain networks and connectivity related to the emergence of this core faculty of human cognition. Significance StatementThe capacity to suppress impulses and behavioral responses is crucial for goal-directed behavior. This ability, called inhibitory control, develops between the ages of 3 and 4 years. The factors behind this developmental milestone have been debated intensely for decades, however, the brain structure that underlies the emergence of inhibitory control in early childhood is largely unknown. Here, we relate the pronounced behavioral improvements in inhibitory control between 3 and 4 years with structural brain markers of grey matter and white matter maturation. Using a multimodal approach that combines analyses of cortical surface structure, subcortical structures, and white matter connectivity, our results reveal the structural brain networks and connectivity related to this core faculty of human cognition.

neuroscience↗