Abstract
BackgroundPatients suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia develop difficulties in social functioning. This has led to an interest in the study of “theory of mind” in this population. However, difficulty has arisen because the associated cognitive demands of traditional short story theory of mind assessments result in failure per se in this population, making it challenging to test pure theory of mind ability.MethodsSimplified, traditional 1st and 2nd order theory of mind short story tasks and a battery of alternative theory of mind cartoon jokes and control slapstick cartoon jokes, without memory components, were administered to 16 participants with mild-moderate Alzheimer’s dementia, and 11 age-matched healthy controls.ResultsNo significant differences were detected between participants with Alzheimer’s dementia and controls on the 1st or 2nd order traditional short story theory of mind tasks (p = 0.155 and p = 0.154 respectively). However, in the cartoon joke tasks there were significant differences in performance between the Alzheimer participants and the control group, this was evident for both theory of mind cartoons and the control ‘slapstick’ jokes.ConclusionIt remains very difficult to assess theory of mind as an isolated phenomenon in populations with global cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s dementia, as the tasks used to assess this cognition invariably depend on other cognitive functions. Although a limitation of this study is the small sample size, the results suggest that there is no measurable specific theory of mind deficit in people with Alzheimer's dementia, and that the use of theory of mind representational models to measure social cognitive ability may not be appropriate in this population.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2050-7283-1-28) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Patients suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia develop difficulties in social functioning
There is preliminary evidence that Theory of mind (ToM) difficulties may occur in patients with Parkinsons Disease (Poletti et al 2011), and the different forms of dementia have been an area of research interest, fronto-temporal dementia, due the markedly impaired social skills encountered in this group of patients (Gregory et al 2002, Fernandez-Duque et al 2009)
Perhaps not as severe as in fronto-temporal dementia, in Alzheimer’s disease, as the illness progresses, patients develop problems in social functioning and this has led to an interest into whether this may be caused by an underlying mentalising deficit
Summary
Patients suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia develop difficulties in social functioning. This has led to an interest in the study of “theory of mind” in this population. Various studies involving patients with brain damage to the frontal lobes have shown that patients with right frontal lesions are impaired in a variety of theory of mind tasks (Happe et al 1999, Winner et al 1998, Rowe et al 2001) and bilateral damage to the orbitofrontal cortex has been associated with difficulty comprehending “faux pas” (Stone et al 1998). Perhaps not as severe as in fronto-temporal dementia, in Alzheimer’s disease, as the illness progresses, patients develop problems in social functioning and this has led to an interest into whether this may be caused by an underlying mentalising deficit
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
