Neural correlates of prosocial behavior in infancy: Different neurophysiological mechanisms support the emergence of helping and comforting

The present study examined the neural processes related to different forms of prosocial behavior in infancy by means of a longitudinal study. At 14 months, infants' resting state brain activation asymmetries were assessed by means of EEG. At 18 months, we examined infants' instrumental helping, and at 24 months infants' behavior in a comforting task. Behavioral analyses revealed a negative relation between infants' performances in the helping and comforting task. The EEG analysis showed that distinct neural patterns were related to each task. Greater left frontal cortical activation was associated with infants' understanding of the other's distress as well as empathic responding in the comforting task, whereas greater right temporal activation was related to infants' instrumental helping. These findings reveal the neural correlates of the earliest forms of prosocial action and show that different neurophysiological activation patterns are related to the emergence of instrumental helping and comforting in early development. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc.