CEN Colloquium: Tobias Grossmann, The Social Self in the Developing Brain

The idea that the self is fundamentally social, formed through our interactions with others, has a long tradition in philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Yet the early development of the social self, and its basis in the infant brain, has received little attention. This talk presents neuroimaging evidence showing that infants recruit the same brain systems adults use for self-processing and social cognition when they respond to self-relevant cues during social interaction, such as mutual gaze, their own name, and joint attention. It draws on recent work demonstrating that the default-mode network, a system central to the sense of self, emerges early and is socially embedded, its strength linked to the quality of infants’ early relationships. This stands in contrast to the much later emergence of the conceptual self, around 18 to 24 months, as marked by mirror self-recognition. From this synthesis, the Social Self First Hypothesis (SSFH) proposes that the social self and its brain basis arise early in development: a shared “We” emerges before an individual “I.” This account extends evolutionary thinking by placing social interdependence at the origin of the human mind.

Speaker bio

Tobias Grossmann is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia (UVA) where he directs the UVA Babylab. His research focuses on the early development of the social, cognitive and brain processes that underpin social cognition, emotion and behavior. He earned his Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institutes for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences and Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He was then awarded a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship at the Center for Brain and Cognitive Development University of London. Before joining UVA, he led an independent research group at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig and completed his Habiliation at Heidelberg University. He is currently writing “The Power of We,” a book on the evolutionary and developmental origins of human cooperation and our capacity to think and act as “we.”

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