Determining differences in social cognition between high-functioning autistic disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders using new advanced “mind-reading” tasks

Abstract

Deficits in understanding the mental state of others (“mind-reading”) have been well documented in individuals with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). However, it is unclear whether this deficit in social cognition differs between the subgroups of PDD defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. In this study, PDD was divided into high-functioning autistic disorder (HFA) ( n = 17) and other PDD ( n = 11) consisting of Asperger's disorder ( n = 8) and PDD-NOS ( n = 3), and differences in mind-reading ability was examined between the two clinical groups and controls ( n = 50) using a new advanced naturalistic task consisting of short scenes from a TV drama showing communication in social situations. The task was divided into visual and auditory tasks to investigate which modality was more valuable for individuals with PDD to understand the mental state of others. The results suggest that social cognition differs significantly between individuals with HFA and those with other PDD, with no difference being found between those with other PDD and controls. Neither the auditory or visual modality was found to be dominant in subjects with PDD in the mind-reading task. Taken together, complex mind-reading tasks appear to be effective for distinguishing individuals with HFA from those with other PDD.