欺骗是儿童道德发展的重要组成部分。以前的发育研究表明,儿童在3岁时开始欺骗,随着年龄增长到5岁,几乎所有的孩子都能够欺骗自己的利益。尽管行为研究表明,欺骗的出现和发展与认知能力有关,他们的神经相关性仍然知之甚少。因此,本研究检查了学龄前儿童潜在的欺骗行为的神经相关性(N=89,44%的男孩,年龄3.13至5.96岁,汉族)使用功能近红外光谱法。修改后的捉迷藏范式被用来引发欺骗和讲真话的行为。结果表明,在3岁儿童的竞争性游戏中,双侧背外侧前额叶皮层的激活与欺骗对手的倾向呈正相关。此外,3岁的孩子表现出很高的欺骗倾向,在额极区域表现出与5岁的孩子在欺骗时相同的大脑激活,而在从未参与欺骗的3岁儿童中没有发现这种效果。这些发现强调了学龄前儿童欺骗与前额叶皮质功能之间的联系。
Deception is an essential part of children\'s moral development. Previous developmental studies have shown that children start to deceive at the age of 3 years, and as age increased to 5 years, almost all children were able to deceive for their own benefit. Although behavioral studies have indicated that the emergence and development of
deception are related to cognitive abilities, their neural correlates remain poorly understood. Therefore, the present study examined the neural correlates underlying
deception in preschool-aged children (N = 89, 44% boys, age 3.13 to 5.96 years, Han Chinese) using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. A modified hide-and-seek paradigm was applied to elicit deceptive and truth-telling behaviors. The results showed that activation of bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was positively associated with the tendency to deceive an opponent in a competitive game in the 3-year-olds. In addition, 3-year-olds who showed a high tendency to deceive showed the same brain activation in the frontopolar area as 5-year-olds did when engaged in deception, whereas no such effect was found in 3-year-olds who never engaged in
deception. These findings underscore the link between preschoolers\'
deception and prefrontal cortex function.