Neuropsychology and Mentalization: Neurocognitive Mechanisms, Neural Correlates and Predictors of Change in Adolescence

Adolescence represents a critical window for the emergence of social-cognitive capacities, emotional regulation, and identity consolidation, processes deeply intertwined with the ability to mentalize: to understand one’s own and others’ behavior in terms of underlying mental states such as thoughts, feelings, desires and intentions. When mentalizing capacities are disrupted or delayed, adolescents are at heightened risk for a broad range of psychopathological conditions, including emerging personality disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, self-harm, and persistent difficulties in peer and family relationships.Over the past two decades, mentalizing-informed approaches have been adapted for adolescent populations, yet their neuropsychological foundations remain surprisingly underexplored. This Research Topic is exclusively concerned with the neuropsychological and neurobiological level of analysis: the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying mentalizing difficulties in adolescence, the neural correlates that predict or mediate change, the neuropsychological, neuroimaging and psychophysiological markers that distinguish who shows differential neurocognitive engagement with mentalizing-focused interventions and through which mechanisms, and how assessment tools can capture the developmental nuances of reflective functioning with neurocognitive precision.All contributions must include a neuropsychological or neurobiological dimension (neurocognitive assessment, neuroimaging, electrophysiology, or biomarker measures) as a central component of the study design. This explicitly includes treatment research: trials, quasi-experimental and longitudinal studies of mentalizing-informed interventions are welcome where neuropsychological, neuroimaging or psychophysiological measures serve as predictors, mediators, moderators or outcomes of treatment response. Studies of clinical outcome, psychotherapy process, implementation, service delivery or cultural adaptation without such measures fall outside the scope of this collection.We invite contributions that advance our understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings, neural correlates, and neurocognitive predictors of mentalizing in adolescent populations. We welcome empirical and theoretical work, including but not limited to:- Neurocognitive and developmental foundations of mentalizing in adolescence: theory of mind, reflective functioning, cognitive and affective empathy, social cognition, and executive function in clinical and non-clinical adolescent samples.- Neuropsychological and neuroimaging correlates of mentalizing difficulties: functional and structural brain imaging, electrophysiological approaches, and neurocognitive profiling illuminating the neural architecture of impaired mentalization and its developmental trajectory.- Biomarkers and neurocognitive predictors of response: neuropsychological, neuroimaging, psychophysiological or biomarker-based approaches to identifying differential neurocognitive response profiles, and through which mechanisms.- Treatment studies with a neurocognitive dimension: trials, quasi-experimental and longitudinal studies of MBT-A and related mentalizing-informed interventions, including group, family-based and digital formats, in which neuropsychological, neuroimaging or psychophysiological measures serve as predictors, mediators, moderators or outcomes of treatment response.- Mechanism-focused studies: longitudinal and experimental studies in which neuropsychological, neuroimaging or psychophysiological measures serve as predictors, mediators or moderators of change in mentalizing capacity. Studies with a strong emphasis on relational, systemic or cultural mechanisms of change without a neuropsychological or neurobiological measure fall outside this collection’s scope.- Neurocognitively informed assessment of mentalizing and reflective functioning: development, validation and cross-cultural adaptation of measures suited to adolescent populations (e.g., RFQ, MASC, ecological momentary assessment, performance-based and experimental paradigms).- Transdiagnostic and neurodevelopmental perspectives: contributions situating mentalizing within transdiagnostic frameworks, examining comorbidity, or exploring the overlap between mentalizing difficulties and neurodevelopmental or psychiatric conditions at the neurocognitive level. Topic editors: Bekir Artukoglu, Carla Sharp Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83804/neuropsychology-and-mentalization-neurocognitive-mechanisms-neural-correlates-and-predictors-of-change-in-adolescence