Abstract
Theory of mind (ToM) is the human ability to infer the mental states of others in order to understand their behaviors and plan own actions. In the past decades, accumulating evidence has shown that heart rate variability (HRV), an index of parasympathetic control of the heart, is linked to behavioral regulation, social competence, and social cognition abilities, all implicated—to some extent—in ToM. This study aims to systematically review and meta-analyze the available studies, investigating the relation between ToM and HRV in typically developing people. Six studies were eligible for the meta-analysis, yielding a significant association between HRV and ToM of a small-to-medium effect size (g = 0.44). This result was not influenced by publication bias. Due to the small number of studies eligible for the meta-analysis, it was not possible to test for the effect of categorical moderators. The moderating role of sex and quality of the studies was examined by meta-regression analysis. Moderation analysis did not yield any significant effect; however, at a descriptive level, studies yielding the largest effect size were characterized by the use of high frequency-HRV assessment at rest and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test to evaluate ToM abilities. The results preliminarily suggest that tonic HRV might be used as an indicator of the ability to understand the content of mind of others.
Highlights
Theory of Mind and Social BehaviorTheory of mind (ToM) is a component of social cognition (Arioli et al, 2018) and it denotes the ability to infer the inner states of others, such as doubts, purposes, intentions, beliefs, and thoughts (Frith and Frith, 2003; Flavell, 2004)
Longitudinal and experimental studies on the association between the ability to infer the mental states of others and vagally mediated HRV
Are needed, since conclusions on directionality cannot be drawn based on the existing data
Summary
Theory of mind (ToM) is a component of social cognition (Arioli et al, 2018) and it denotes the ability to infer the inner states of others, such as doubts, purposes, intentions, beliefs, and thoughts (Frith and Frith, 2003; Flavell, 2004). The majority of studies documented a positive relation between ToM and social relationships (for a review, see Hughes and Leekam, 2004), peer popularity (for a meta-analysis, see Slaughter et al, 2015), prosocial behavior (for a meta-analysis, see Imuta et al, 2016), and social adjustment (Capage and Watson, 2001; Banerjee and Watling, 2005). Some people may decide to use ToM for prosocial purposes, namely, nice ToM, but others may use it for antisocial purposes, such as threatening, manipulating, or bullying (nasty ToM; Ronald et al, 2005; McEwen et al, 2007)
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