Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to infer others’ mental states and thus to predict their behavior (Perner, 1991). Therefore, ToM is essential for the adequate adjustment of behavior in social situations. ToM can be divided into: 1) cognitive ToM encompassing inferences about intentions and beliefs and 2) affective ToM encompassing inferences about emotions (Shamay-Tsoory, Harari, Aharon-Peretz, & Levkovitz, 2010). Well-functioning skills of both ToM aspects are much-needed in the developmental period of adolescence because in this age phase peer relationships become more important and romantic relationships arise (Steinberg & Morris, 2001). Importantly, affective psychopathological disorders often have their onset in adolescence. ToM development in adolescence might be based on underlying cognitive mechanisms such as the ability to inhibit one’s own thoughts in order to understand another person’s thoughts (Carlson & Moses, 2001). Another possible mechanism relates to functional brain development across adolescence (Blakemore, 2008). Therefore, neurocognitive mechanisms may underlie ongoing ToM development in adolescence. First studies indicate an ongoing behavioral and functional brain development of ToM (e.g. Blakemore, 2008). However, ToM development in adolescence and how this might relate to underlying (neuro)cognitive functions remains largely underexamined. The major aims of the current thesis were first to answer the overall question whether there is an ongoing development of ToM in adolescence. This question relates to both behavioral and functional brain development. As a second major aim, the present work sought to elucidate possible (neuro)cognitive mechanisms of ongoing ToM development across adolescence. Specifically, these cognitive mechanisms might be basic cognitive functions as well as executive functions. Additionally, the present work aimed at exploring potential (neuro)cognitive mechanisms through an integration of both behavioral and functional brain studies. The current experimental work spans three cross-sectional studies investigating adolescents (aged around 12-15 years) and young adults (aged around 18-22 years) to examine for the first time both the behavioral (studies I and II) and functional brain development of ToM (study III) in adolescence and its underlying (neuro)cognitive mechanisms. In all three studies, more complex, advanced ToM tasks were employed to avoid ceiling effects. Study I was aimed at investigating if cognitive and affective ToM continues to develop in adolescence and at exploring if basic cognitive variables such as verbal ability, speed of processing, and working memory capacity underlie such development. Hence, two groups of adolescents and young adults completed tasks of ToM and basic cognitive abilities. Large age effects were revealed on both measures of ToM: adolescents performed lower than adults. These age differences remained significant after controlling for basic cognitive variables. However, verbal ability covaried with performance in affective ToM. Overall, results support the hypothesis of an ongoing development of ToM from adolescence to adulthood on both cognitive and affective aspects. Results may further indicate verbal ability being a basic cognitive mechanism of affective ToM. Study II was designed to further explore if affective ToM, as measured with a dynamic realistic task, continues to develop across adolescence. Importantly, this study sought to explore executive functions as higher cognitive mechanisms of developing affective ToM across adolescence. A large group spanning adolescents and young adults evaluated affective mental states depicted by actors in video clips. Additionally, participants were examined with three subcomponents of executive functions, inhibition, updating, and shifting following the classification of Miyake et al. (2000). Affective ToM performance was positively related to age and all three executive functions. Specifically, inhibition explained the largest amount of variance in age related differences of affective ToM performance. Overall, these results indicate the importance of inhibition as key underlying mechanism of developing an advanced affective ToM in adolescence. Study III set out to explore the functional brain development of affective ToM in adolescence by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The affective ToM measure was the behavioral developmentally sensitive task from study II. An additional control condition consisted of the same emotional stimuli with the instruction to focus on physical information. This study faced methodical challenges of developmental fMRI studies by matching performance of groups. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) was significantly less deactivated in adolescents in comparison to adults, which might suggest that adolescents seem to rely more on self-referential processes for affective ToM. Furthermore, adolescents compared to adults showed greater activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the control condition, indicating that adolescents might be distracted by the emotional content and therefore needed to focus more on the physical content of the stimulus. These findings suggest affective ToM continues to develop on the functional brain level and reveals different underlying neurocognitive strategies for adolescents in contrast to adults. In summary, the current thesis investigated whether ToM continues to develop in adolescence until young adulthood and explored underlying (neuro)cognitive mechanisms. Findings suggest that there is indeed an ongoing development of both the cognitive and affective aspect of ToM, which importantly contributes to the conceptual debate. Moreover, the second benefit to the debate is to demonstrate how this change may occur. As a basic cognitive mechanism verbal ability and as an executive functioning mechanism inhibition was revealed. Furthermore, neurocognitive mechanisms in form of different underlying neurocognitive strategies of adolescents compared to adults were shown. Taken together, ToM development in adolescence seems to mirror a different adaptive cognitive style in adolescence (Crone & Dahl, 2012). This seems to be important for solving the wealth of socio-emotional developmental tasks that are relevant for this age span.:Abstract 1 1 General Introduction 4 1.1 Concept of ToM: cognitive and affective aspects 7 1.2 ToM Development 8 1.2.1 ToM Development until Adolescence 9 1.2.2 ToM Development in Adolescence 12 1.3 Cognitive Mechanisms 14 1.3.1 Basic Cognitive Functions 15 1.3.2 Executive Functions 17 1.4 Neurocognitive Mechanisms 19 1.4.1 Functional brain development of ToM 20 1.4.2 Integrating behavioral and functional brain studies 21 2 Outline and Central Questions 24 2.1 Does ToM continue to develop in adolescence? 24 2.1.1 Does ToM continue to develop on the behavioral level? 24 2.1.2 Does ToM continue to develop on the level of brain function? 25 2.2 What are (neuro)cognitive mechanisms of ToM development in adolescence? 26 2.2.1 What are basic cognitive and executive functioning mechanisms? 26 2.2.2 Can mechanisms be concluded from the integration of behavioral data and functional brain processes? 26 3 Study I – ToM Development in Adolescence and its Basic Cognitive Mechanisms 28 3.1 Introduction 28 3.2 Method 32 3.2.1 Participants 32 3.2.2 Materials 33 3.3 Results 36 3.3.1 Age Effects 36 3.3.2 Influence of puberty on social cognition 37 3.3.3 Controlling for Basic Cognitive Abilities 39 3.4 Discussion 40 3.4.1 Overview 40 3.4.2 Age differences in social cognition 40 3.4.3 Influence of puberty on social cognition 42 3.4.4 Covariates of age differences in social cognition 42 3.4.5 Conclusions 43 4 Study II – ToM Development in Adolescence and its Executive Functioning Mechanisms 45 4.1 Introduction 45 4.2 Method 49 4.2.1 Participants 49 4.2.2 Materials 49 4.3 Results 52 4.3.1 Decomposing the Age Effect in Affective Theory of Mind 54 4.4 Discussion 55 4.4.1 Overview 55 4.4.2 Conclusions 57 5 Study III – ToM Development in Adolescence and its Neurocognitive Mechanisms 59 5.1 Introduction 59 5.2 Method 61 5.2.1 Participants 61 5.2.2 Stimuli, design and procedure 62 5.2.3 Statistical analysis of behavioral data 65 5.2.4 Functional imaging 65 5.2.5 Statistical analysis of fMRI data 66 5.3 Results 67 5.3.1 Behavioral results 67 5.3.2 fMRI results 68 5.4 Discussion 71 5.4.1 Developmental differences in brain activations 71 5.4.2 Conclusions 74 6 General Discussion 75 6.1 Summary of empirical findings 75 6.2 Discussion and integration of the main empirical findings 76 6.2.1 Continued ToM development in adolescence 76 6.2.2 (Neuro)cognitive mechanisms of ToM development in adolescence 80 6.3 Implications and outlook 89 6.3.1 Current findings and their conceptual fit to present models of ToM 90 6.3.2 Underpinning the concept of cognitive and affective ToM 91 6.3.3 Conceptual and methodical implications of performance matching 92 6.3.4 The role of puberty on ToM 94 6.3.5 Predicting other’s economic behavior 95 6.3.6 Structural brain development 96 6.3.7 Applied perspective 97 6.4 Summary 98 References 99

Das vorliegende Forschungsvorhaben geht auf die Suche nach identitätsrelevanten Erfahrungen im Zusammenhang mit Konsum- und Rauscherlebnissen von jungen Menschen ohne Krankheitsdiagnosen. Ausgangshypothese war, dass es einen Zusammenhang gibt zwischen der Beteiligung an Konsum-, in erster Linie Alkoholszenen, und der Entwicklung eines jungen Erwachsenen Selbst. Folgende Forschungsfragen standen am Anfang der Studie: Welche Gründe stehen hinter einem Konsum von psychoaktiven Substanzen in der heute jungen Generation der 15- bis 25-Jährigen? Wie werden Rauscherfahrungen von Konsument/inn/en selbst bewertet und eingeschätzt? Welche subjektiven und gruppenspezifischen Gründe führen dazu, sich auf Konsumverhaltensweisen einzulassen, die aus einer Fremdperspektive auch gesundheitsschädigend und risikoreich sein können? Für die Studie wurden qualitative und quantitative Forschungsmethoden eingesetzt. Der Kern der Arbeit besteht aus einer – von der Grounded Theory ausgehenden – Analyse von 19 halbstandardisierten, themenzentrierten Interviews, die mit insgesamt 23 konsum- und rauscherfahrenen jungen Männern und Frauen zwischen 14 und 20 Jahren geführt wurden. Der empirische Teil bezieht sich auf Südtirol. Auf quantitativer Ebene wird gezeigt, wie sich die Konsumprävalenzen in den letzten 8 Jahren innerhalb der Population der 15- bis 25-Jährigen verändert haben und welche Korrelationen zwischen Konsumverhalten und Lebensbefindlichkeiten bestehen. Insgesamt kann das gesamte Vorhaben auch als Versuch gesehen werden, eine Sichtweise aufzuzeigen, die von den Lebenswelten der Betroffenen ausgeht. Als Resultat zeigt die vorliegende Arbeit klar und unmissverständlich auf, dass Alkoholszenen wichtige identitätsstiftende und verankernde Impulse leisten, die junge Burschen und Mädchen auf ihrem Weg in das Erwachsenenleben als Erfahrungswelt benötigen. Sie sind behilflich, um sich von der Kindheit zu verabschieden und zu einem eigenen Selbst zu kommen. Diese Szenen sind selbstorganisiert und selbstkonstruiert. In ihnen lernen die Beteiligten kompetent mit Schlüsselsituationen umzugehen. Nach einigen Jahren entwickeln sie durch die Beteiligung aber auch eine kritische Reflexionsfähigkeit und distanzieren sich erneut davon. Ersichtlich wird durch die ausgeprägt vorgefundenen Ambivalenzen allerdings auch, dass die Alkoholszenen Kunstwelten sind und für diesen Übergangsraum nicht die optimalen und idealen Orte darstellen. Dass Alkoholszenen diese Funktion trotzdem einnehmen, hat auch damit zu tun, dass Erwachsene sich aus diesem Raum mehr oder weniger verabschiedet haben. Für die seit Menschengedenken gleiche Aufgabe, seinen eigenen Platz im Gefüge zu finden, gibt es in der 2. Moderne keine aktualisierte und an die aktuellen Lebensbedingungen angepasste „Software“. / This paper aims to examine identity-related experiences of adolescents without confirmed diagnosis regarding their episodes of alcohol consumption and excessive drinking. The core assumption was that there is a connection between the participation in consumption scenes, alcohol scenes in particular, and the identity development of a young adult. The underlying questions of the study were the following: What are the reasons for the consumption of psychoactive substances in today’s 15 to 25-year-olds? How do consumers themselves value and assess their episodes of excessive drinking? What are the subjective and group-specific reasons for the participation in consumption behavior, which can be considered as dangerous and health damaging by people that are not involved? Qualitative and quantitative approaches were applied in the study. The core issue of the research consists of the analysis – based on the Grounded Theory Method – of 19 half-standardized, topic-related interviews with 23 young male and female subjects aged 14 to 20 experienced in consumption and inebriation. The empirical part of the study refers to the situation in South Tyrol. The quantitative part focuses on the change in consumption preferences of the population of 15 to 25-year-olds over the last eight years and on the correlation between consumption behavior and existential orientation. This paper can also be considered an attempt to show the perspective of the people concerned. The findings of the study clearly and unequivocally indicate that alcohol scenes provide important stimuli for the identity development and consolidation that adolescents need on their way to their adult life. These scenes are self-contrived and self-organized and can help adolescents to let go of their childhood and to find their own self. They teach participants to competently handle key situations. After some years, they develop a critical reflecting ability through their participation and they distance themselves from the scenes. The frequently encountered ambivalences also show that alcohol scenes are artificial worlds and do not represent the optimal and ideal places for this transitional period. Alcohol scenes take over this function because of the fact that adults have taken leave of this place. Since time memorial, a young people’s essential task has been that of finding their own place in the social fabric and second modernity has not provided appropriate “software” for the present living conditions yet.