Theory of Mind

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Theory of Mind and ASD

Description

  • History

The idea that children with ASD lack a 'Theory of Mind' was first postulated by Baron-Cohen et. al.2 in 1985, on the basis that autistic children, regardless of IQ, do not engage in pretend play. It is this theory of mind, or the ability to understand that others have feelings and beliefs that may be different from your own, that is crucial for the emergence of pretend play in developing children. Baron-Cohen et. al. tested this hypothesis using a false-belief test. They found that while some ASD children were able to pass the test, the vast majority of the ASD group did not. These group results were significant when compared with control groups. They hypothesized that having this theory of mind was crucial in social behavior and communication, and that correspondingly the social deficits seen in ASD children are a result of their lack of a 'Theory of Mind'.2

  • Theory

The Theory of Mind is the ability for a person to connect emotional states to themselves and others. It is intimately connected with the development of a person's ability to analyze and interpret the intentions of others.These abilities are impaired in people with ASD and are central to social perception. The amygdala, the striatum, the superior temporal suclcus and the orbitofrontal cortex have been theorized to play a major part in the development of social abilities. It has been proposed that the amygdala, striatum, and orbitofrontal cortex link sensory representations of stimuli to their motivational value while the superior temporal sulcus is involved in detailed perceptual processing.1

The superior temporal sulcus(STS) is activated more strongly when the person perceives a meaningful hand movement than non-meaningful ones, which suggest that the STS also analyzes how socially meaningful the movement is. Furthermore, activity in the STS is enhanced when subjects watch goal-directed behavior. These neuroimaging result are consistent with the hypothesis that Joint Attention is facilitated by networks involving the STS.1

Some recent studies involving children with autism have shown that these children have rest functional abnormalities centered in the STS and the superior temporal gyrus using PET and SPECT. Additionally, significant negative correlation has been shown between regional rest cerebral blood flow and the scores of ASD children on the ADI-R. Furthermore, in theory of mind studies where subjects watched a virtual actor either look towards a checkerboard that appeared in her visual field vs. the empty space, typically developing subjects showed more activity in the STS when the actor looked at the empty space which signifies that the subjects had formulated an expectation about what the actor should do in that context, while subjects with ASD showed no difference in activity levels between the two trials. 1

Criticisms

Tests for Theory of Mind





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Citations

1. Zilbovicius, M. et. al. Autism, the superior temporal sulcus, and social perception. Trends Neurosci. 2006 Jul;29(7):359-66. Epub 2006 Jun 27. PMID 16806505

2. Baron-Cohen et. al. Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"? Cognition. 1985 Oct;21(1):37-46. PMID 2934210