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

Abstract

AbstractPreverbal infants already seem to consider the perspective of others, even when it differs from their own. Similarly, adults take the perspective of others very quickly, in parallel to other cognitively demanding tasks. This raises the question of how multiple perspectives are processed efficiently, and even before higher cognitive capacities develop. To test whether and how others’ perspectives are neurally represented, we presented 12-14-months-old infants and adults with objects flickering at 4 Hz, which evoked neural oscillations at the exact same frequency. Remarkably, both in infants and adults, this same highly specific neural signature of visual object processing was also present when their view was blocked and only another observer saw the object. These results provide strong evidence that we process what others see as if we saw it ourselves, revealing a neural mechanism for efficient perspective taking, present from infancy.