Autistic traits and positive psychotic experiences modulate the association of psychopathic tendencies with theory of mind in opposite directions

Steven M. Gillespie,Ian J. Mitchell,Ahmad M. Abu-Akel

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-06995-2

Steven M. Gillespie, Ian J. Mitchell + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06995-2

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Abstract

Various clinical disorders, including psychopathy, and autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders, have been linked with impairments in Theory of Mind (ToM). However, although these conditions can co-occur in the same individual, the effect of their inter-play on ToM abilities has not been investigated. Here we assessed ToM abilities in 55 healthy adults while performing a naturalistic ToM task, requiring participants to watch a short film and judge the actors’ mental states. The results reveal for the first time that autistic traits and positive psychotic experiences interact with psychopathic tendencies in opposite directions to predict ToM performance—the interaction of psychopathic tendencies with autism traits was associated with a decrement in performance, whereas the interaction of psychopathic tendencies and positive psychotic experiences was associated with improved performance. These effects were specific to cognitive rather than affective ToM. These results underscore the importance of the simultaneous assessment of these dimensions within clinical settings. Future research in these clinical populations may benefit by taking into account such individual differences.

Highlights

Theory of mind (ToM), variably referred to as cognitive empathy and mentalizing, represents a core aspect of human social interaction, allowing one to infer the mental states of others[1]
We tested for the effects of autism traits (Autism Quotient; Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ)), positive psychotic experiences (Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences positive subscale; CAPE’s 20-item positive subscale (CAPEp)), primary psychopathic tendencies (Levenson Self Report Psychopathy primary subscale; P-Levenson Self Report Psychopathy scale (LSRP)), and all two-way interactions on total Theory of Mind (ToM) errors using ordinary least squares regression models
We examined the interplay between psychopathic tendencies, autism traits, and positive psychotic experiences in predicting performance on the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC), a naturalistic and realistic test of ToM abilities

Summary

Introduction

Theory of mind (ToM), variably referred to as cognitive empathy and mentalizing, represents a core aspect of human social interaction, allowing one to infer the mental states of others[1] These abilities can be reliably dissociated into cognitive and affective components[2]. A similar distinction has been observed in developmental studies of boys with ASCs or psychopathic tendencies[31], and it has been shown that both autistic and psychopathic traits are associated with ToM problems in children with conduct problems[32] Taken together, these findings suggest that psychopathy and autism are associated with differing ToM profiles[33,34,35]

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