Neurocognitive Mechanisms of Prosociality in Childhood

This paper reviews the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying prosocial development in childhood. I begin by arguing that most prosociality is costly. This cost needs to be regulated for prosocial behavior to occur. The precise regulatory mechanisms depend on the type of prosocial behavior and include behavioral control in the case of sharing and emotion regulation in the case of helping. I review evidence that these regulatory mechanisms are subserved by prefrontal cortical circuitry, which depending on the mechanism interacts with different brain regions coding for self-related and other-related affect to produce prosocial behavior. I conclude that the maturation of prefrontal cortical circuitry drives the development of both sharing and helping in childhood through supporting the emergence of relevant regulatory mechanisms.