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The study also provides the first evidence at a brain level to support some of the theories around play put forward by Jean Piaget, the 20th-century Swiss scientist who is now regarded as one of the fathers of developmental psychology. Because this brain region has been shown to play a similar role in supporting empathy and social processing across six continents, these findings are likely to be country agnostic”. The fact that we saw the pSTS to be active in our study shows that playing with dolls is helping them rehearse some of the social skills they will need in later life. They encourage children to think about other people and how they might interact with each other. Dolls encourage them to create their own little imaginary worlds, as opposed to say, problem-solving or building games. We use this area of the brain when we think about other people, especially when we think about another person’s thoughts or feelings. Gerson explains: “This is a completely new finding. Through monitoring the brain activity of 33 children* between the ages of 4 and 8, as they played with a range of Barbie dolls, the team found that the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a region of the brain associated with social information processing such as empathy, was activated even when the child was playing on their own. These benefits of solo doll play were shown to be equal for both boys and girls.ĭr. Sarah Gerson and colleagues at Cardiff University’s Centre for Human Developmental Science have used an emerging neuroimaging technology, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which makes it possible to scan brain activity while the subject is freely moving around, to provide the first indications of the benefits of doll play at a brain level.
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Over the past 18 months, senior lecturer Dr. This study is the first time that some of the fundamental theories around play being social of Jean Piaget, considered by many as the father of developmental science, have been evidenced at a brain levelĪ team of researchers from Cardiff University has used neuroscience for the first time to explore the positive impact doll play has on children, bringing to light new evidence that doll play activates brain regions that allow children to develop empathy and social information processing skills, even when playing by themselves.Other findings show that doll play allows children to develop empathy and social processing skills more so than solo tablet play, even when playing by themselves.Evidence shows that doll play activates brain regions which are associated with social information processing and empathy, indicating that doll play enables children to rehearse, use and perform these skills even when playing on their own.The study by neuroscientists from Cardiff University provides first neuroimaging evidence of brain activations during natural play with dolls made possible by using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology.