Nonverbal deficit to understand others’ minds in high function autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Deficits in understanding others’ minds, evident in most individuals with autism spectrum disorders, have been suggested as a core deficit of autism. However, nonverbal ability has gone untested because most theory of mind measurement has involved verbal materials such as reading tasks. This raises the possibility that children with high function autism spectrum disorder would distinguish verbal and nonverbal component deficits. Thirty-two participants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder by a trained psychiatrist and 34 matched controls were recruited for this study. The assessment included verbal and non-verbal materials tasks. The result showed that nonverbal ability of theory of mind is impaired in the individuals with autism spectrum disorders.