ToM Tasks Research Articles

Social cognition in Parkinson's disease and functional movement disorders.

Functional movement disorders (FMD) can overlap with Parkinson's disease (PD), and distinguishing between the two clinical conditions can be complex. Framing social cognition (theory of mind) (TOM) disorder, attention deficit, and psychodynamic features of FMD and PD may improve diagnosis. Subjects with FMD and PD and healthy controls (HC) were administered tasks assessing TOM abilities and attention. The psychodynamic hypothesis of conversion disorder was explored by a questionnaire assessing dissociative symptoms. A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tasks was also administered to FMD and PD. Although both FMD and PD scored lower than HC on all TOM tests, significant correlations between TOM and neuropsychological tasks were found only in PD but not in FMD. Only PD showed a reduction in attentional control. Dissociative symptoms occurred only in FMD. Cognitive-affective disturbances are real in FMD, whereas they are largely dependent on cognitive impairment in PD. Attentional control is preserved in FMD compared to PD, consistent with the hypothesis that overload of voluntary attentional orientation may be at the basis of the onset of functional motor symptoms. On a psychodynamic level, the confirmation of dissociative symptoms in FMD supports the conversion disorder hypothesis. FMD and PD can be distinguished on an affective and cognitive level. At the same time, however, the objective difficulty often encountered in distinguishing between the two pathologies draws attention to how blurred the boundary between 'organic' and 'functional' can be.

Theory of mind in neurodevelopmental disorders: beyond autistic spectrum disorder

IntroductionTheory of mind (ToM) is the human ability to perceive, interpret, and attribute the mental states of other people, and the alteration of this cognitive function is a core symptom of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). In such other neurodevelopmental disorders as childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome (TS) that can present with cognitive dysfunctions, ToM has been less extensively studied, especially in the young population. The aim of the study was to compare advanced ToM between groups of young people diagnosed with OCD, TS, or ASD and a control group. MethodsClinical interviews were conducted with male patients aged between 11 and 17 years with a main diagnosis of OCD (n = 19), TS (n = 14), or ASD (n = 18), and a control group (n = 20). We administered instruments for estimating intelligence quotient and severity of psychiatric symptoms, and tasks to evaluate ToM (the "Stories from everyday life" task and the "Reading the mind in the eyes” test). ResultsYoung people with TS and with ASD present similar difficulties in solving advanced ToM tasks, whereas patients with childhood-onset OCD present similar results to controls. ConclusionsToM is altered in other neurodevelopmental disorders beyond ASD, such as TS.

Training deaf college students to improve their theory of mind: based on a two-component model.

This paper explored the training methods to improve the level of deaf college students' ToM. Eighty deaf college students were selected as participants and randomly divided into experimental group and control group. The ToM training group received ToM training; The non-ToM training group received physical-conversation training. Cognitive ToM task and affective ToM task were used to investigate the training effect. After training, the level of ToM of deaf college students who received ToM training was significantly improved. The results show that ToM training can effectively promote the level of deaf college students' ToM.

Mentalizing in a movie for the assessment of social cognition (MASC): the validation in a taiwanese sample

BackgroundThe present study evaluated the psychometrics properties of a sensitive video-based test used in the evaluation of mentalizing skills, that is, the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition-Taiwanese version (MASC-TW).MethodsWe recruited two independent samples of nonclinical participants (N = 167) and adult patients with schizophrenia (N = 41). The MASC-TW and two other social cognition measures, namely the Chinese version of Theory of Mind task (ToM) and the Taiwanese version of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2 (DANAV-TW-2), and an executive function measure of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), were administered to both groups.ResultsThe MASC proved to be a reliable measure of mentalizing capacity, high Cronbach’s α value of 0.87. The intraclass correlation coefficient for the MASC-TW total correct scores was 0.85 across three waves of data collection. Across the entire sample, the scores on the MASC-TW were significantly correlated with verbal and nonverbal scores for the ToM task and recognition of facial and prosodic emotion on the DANAV-TW-2. Both executive function and emotion recognition emerged as noteworthy predictors of mentalizing, indicating that these two variables might play crucial roles in the development of mentalizing capacities. Finally, a receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that in patients with schizophrenia, the MASC was the most accurate discriminator of diagnostic groups, highlighting the validity of the MASC.ConclusionsOverall, the MASC-TW is an ecologically valid and useful tool for assessing mentalizing abilities in a Taiwanese population.

Executive Functions and Theory of Mind in Teachers and Non-Teachers

Human teaching is a key behavior for the socialization of cultural knowledge. Previous studies suggest that human teaching behavior would support the development of executive and ToM skills, which in turn would refine the teaching behavior. Given this connection, it raises the question of whether subjects with professional training in teaching also have more efficient executive and ToM systems. To shed light on this issue, in the present study we compared the performance of professional teachers (N = 20, age range = 35–61 years) with a matched control group of non-teachers (N = 20, age range: 29–64 years) on tasks measuring working memory (Sternberg Task), cognitive flexibility (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test), executive control (Attention Network Test), along with online ToM skills (Frith–Happé Animations Task), emotion recognition (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test) and first-order and second-order ToM (Yoni Task). We found that teachers were significantly more accurate on tasks involving cognitive flexibility (p = .014) and working memory (p = .040), and more efficient on tasks requiring executive control of attention (p = .046), compared to non-teachers. In ToM tasks, differences in accuracy between teachers and non-teachers were not found. But, teachers were slower to respond than non-teachers (about 2 s difference) on tasks involving emotion recognition (p = .0007) and the use of second-order affective ToM (p = .006). Collectively, our findings raise an interesting link between professional teaching and the development of cognitive skills critical for decision-making in challenging social contexts such as the classroom. Future research could explore ways to foster teachers' strengths in cognitive flexibility, working memory, and executive control of attention to enhance teaching strategies and student learning outcomes. Additionally, exploring factors behind slower response times in affective ToM tasks can guide teacher-training programs focused on interpersonal skills and improve teacher-student interactions.

Training volitional control of the theory of mind network with real-time fMRI neurofeedback

Is there a way improve our ability to understand the minds of others? Towards addressing this question, here, we conducted a single-arm, proof-of-concept study to evaluate whether real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rtfMRI-NF) from the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) leads to volitional control of the neural network subserving theory of mind (ToM; the process by which we attribute and reason about the mental states of others). As additional aims, we evaluated the strategies used to self-regulate the network and whether volitional control of the ToM network was moderated by participant characteristics and associated with improved performance on behavioral measures. Sixteen participants underwent fMRI while completing a task designed to individually-localize the TPJ, and then three separate rtfMRI-NF scans during which they completed multiple runs of a training task while receiving intermittent, activation-based feedback from the TPJ, and one run of a transfer task in which no neurofeedback was provided. Region-of-interest analyses demonstrated volitional control in most regions during the training tasks and during the transfer task, although the effects were smaller in magnitude and not observed in one of the neurofeedback targets for the transfer task. Text analysis demonstrated that volitional control was most strongly associated with thinking about prior social experiences when up-regulating the neural signal. Analysis of behavioral performance and brain-behavior associations largely did not reveal behavior changes except for a positive association between volitional control in RTPJ and changes in performance on one ToM task. Exploratory analysis suggested neurofeedback-related learning occurred, although some degree of volitional control appeared to be conferred with the initial self-regulation strategy provided to participants (i.e., without the neurofeedback signal). Critical study limitations include the lack of a control group and pre-rtfMRI transfer scan, which prevents a more direct assessment of neurofeedback-induced volitional control, and a small sample size, which may have led to an overestimate and/or unreliable estimate of study effects. Nonetheless, together, this study demonstrates the feasibility of training volitional control of a social cognitive brain network, which may have important clinical applications. Given the study's limitations, findings from this study should be replicated with more robust experimental designs.

Assessing the construct validity of a theory of mind battery adapted to Tunisian school-aged children.

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand others' states of mind, desires, emotions, beliefs, and intentions to predict the content of their mental representations. Two major dimensions within ToM have been studied. The first is the type of inferred mental state, which can be cognitive or affective. The second comprises the types of processes involved according to their degree of complexity (first- and second-order false belief and advanced ToM). ToM acquisition is fundamental-a key component in the development of everyday human social interactions. ToM deficits have been reported in various neurodevelopmental disorders through various tools assessing disparate facets of social cognition. Nevertheless, Tunisian practitioners and researchers lack a linguistically and culturally appropriate psychometric tool for ToM assessment among school-aged children. To assess the construct validity of a translated and adapted French ToM Battery for Arabic-speaking Tunisian school-aged children. The focal ToM Battery was designed with neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental theory and composed of 10 subtests distributed evenly in three parts: Pre-conceptual, cognitive, and affective ToM. Translated and adapted to the Tunisian sociocultural context, this ToM battery was individually administered to 179 neurotypical Tunisian children (90 girls and 89 boys) aged 7-12 years. After controlling for the age effect, construct validity was empirically confirmed on two dimensions (cognitive and affective) via structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, demonstrating that this solution has a good fit. The results confirmed that the age affected differentially the performance obtained on ToM tasks based on the two components of the battery. Our findings confirm that the Tunisian version of the ToM Battery has robust construct validity for the assessment of cognitive and affective ToM in Tunisian school-aged children; hence, it could be adopted in clinical and research settings.

In people who drink more, facets of theory of mind may be impaired by alcohol stimuli

BackgroundTheory of mind (ToM) – the ability to understand others’ beliefs, mental states, and knowledge – is an important part of successful social interaction. There is a growing (albeit mixed) evidence base suggesting that individuals with substance use disorder or who are intoxicated (relative to sober controls) perform worse on a number of ToM tasks. The aim of this study was to explore the hitherto little explored notion that ToM-related capabilities such as the ability to see the world from another person’s perspective (termed Visual Perspective Taking; VPT), may be impacted by alcohol-related stimuli. MethodIn this pre-registered study, 108 participants (M age = 25.75, SD age = 5.67) completed a revised version of the director task where they followed the instructions of an avatar to move both alcohol beverages and soft drinks that were mutually visible (target objects) while avoiding those only visible to the participant (distractor items). ResultsContrary to predictions, accuracy was lower when the target drink was alcohol and the distractor was a soft drink, although higher AUDIT scores were associated with significantly lower accuracy when alcohol drinks were the distractor items. ConclusionsThere may be some contexts when being able to see alcohol beverages makes it harder to take another person’s perspective. It also appears that poorer VPT and perhaps ToM capacity may be evident in individuals who consume more alcohol. Future research is warranted to examine how alcohol beverages, alcohol consumption behaviours, and intoxication interact to impact VPT capacity.

No evidence of theory of mind reasoning in the human language network.

Language comprehension and the ability to infer others' thoughts (theory of mind [ToM]) are interrelated during development and language use. However, neural evidence that bears on the relationship between language and ToM mechanisms is mixed. Although robust dissociations have been reported in brain disorders, brain activations for contrasts that target language and ToM bear similarities, and some have reported overlap. We take another look at the language-ToM relationship by evaluating the response of the language network, as measured with fMRI, to verbal and nonverbal ToM across 151 participants. Individual-participant analyses reveal that all core language regions respond more strongly when participants read vignettes about false beliefs compared to the control vignettes. However, we show that these differences are largely due to linguistic confounds, and no such effects appear in a nonverbal ToM task. These results argue against cognitive and neural overlap between language processing and ToM. In exploratory analyses, we find responses to social processing in the "periphery" of the language network-right-hemisphere homotopes of core language areas and areas in bilateral angular gyri-but these responses are not selectively ToM-related and may reflect general visual semantic processing.

AGE-RELATED DIFFERENCES IN THEORY OF MIND: A TIME-VARYING FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY APPROACH

Abstract Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the act of inferring someone’s inner state, such as their emotions and thoughts. Previous work also demonstrated that ToM performance declines across age, but the mechanisms underlying this are not well-understood. The brain regions underlying ToM are generally in the default mode network (DMN) – a group of brain regions particularly vulnerable to pathological aging. Recent work suggests that declines in functional connectivity (FC; correlations between brain regions) during resting state (a period of undirected thought) predict age deficits in ToM. However, these findings come from aggregated FC, ignoring potentially informative details of dynamic changes during resting state. Researching these details may provide more specificity related to social cognitive aging. To test this, 35 older adults (OA; M = 75.61; 22 female) and 40 young adults (YA; M = 21.58; 25 female) underwent resting state and task-based fMRI. During the task, they completed a standard ToM task. We conducted time-varying functional connectivity analyses in the DMN to identify dynamic changes over time. Overall, OA had more variability than YA, but variability benefitted YAs, and not OAs. This occurred specifically in a DMN subnetwork associated with contextual information in memory. These results suggest that variability is useful, but only to an extent. With respect to ToM, variability may promote how YA integrate contextual information to memory, but is ineffective for OA.

Opaque windows in puppet studies: A response to Lillard (2022), Rakoczy (2022), Wellman & Yu (2022), and Yu & Wellman (2022)

In our article (Packer & Moreno-Dulcey, 2022) we pointed out that the use of puppets in Theory of Mind tasks (1) requires young children to pretend, which (2) introduces a confound, and also (3) reflects a failure to distinguish scientific and folk psychology. In their comments Lillard (2022) and Wellman and Yu (2022; Yu & Wellman, 2022) claim that use of puppets requires not pretense but an understanding that they ‘stand-in’ for people, without explaining how this differs from pretense, or how it avoids a confound. Rakoczy (2022) in contrast agrees with us that pretense is required but argues that it uses the same “code” and “concepts” as “the real world.” We recall his earlier appreciation that institutional reality has the logical form of pretense. We suggest that ‘mind’ is a culturally and historically bound institutional fact, and point out that a typical ToM task involves multiple levels of pretense, games, and institutional reality.

Theory of mind in children with cochlear implants: Comparison with age- and sex-matched children with normal hearing

Objectives/hypothesisTheory of mind (ToM) is a crucial ability for maintaining normal social interaction and is directly related to language ability. This study was performed to compare ToM between children with congenital hearing loss who have received cochlear implantation (CI) and those with normal hearing (NH). Study designCase–control study design. MethodsOne hundred children, aged 2–12 years, participated: 50 children who received CI before 36 months of age (CI group) and one-to-one age- and sex-matched children with normal hearing (NH group). All children underwent tests to examine receptive language ability and ToM. Receptive language was measured using the Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Test, and ToM was measured using the Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToM-TB). The scores of the two tests were compared between the CI and NH groups. ResultsThe ToM-TB score in the CI group correlated positively with age and receptive language score. ToM-TB scores did not differ significantly between children in the CI group who achieved normal receptive language and the NH group. However, these children in the CI group scored lower than those in the NH group on some advanced ToM tasks that require the ability to understand second-order emotion, message–desire discrepancy, or second-order false belief. ConclusionsThis case–control study found that children with CI who achieve normal receptive language ability have ToM that is similar to that in children with NH. However, these children exhibited weakness in advanced ToM skills. Interventions to facilitate the development of advanced ToM are needed for children with CI.

Does the TPJ fit it all? Representational similarity analysis of different forms of mentalizing

ABSTRACT Mentalizing is the key socio-cognitive ability. Its heterogeneous structure may result from a variety of forms of mental state inference, which may be based on lower-level processing of cues encoded in the observable behavior of others, or rather involve higher-level computations aimed at understanding another person’s perspective. Here we aimed to investigate the representational content of the brain regions engaged in mentalizing. To this end, 61 healthy adults took part in an fMRI study. We explored ROI activity patterns associated with five well-recognized ToM tasks that induce either decoding of mental states from motion kinematics or belief-reasoning. By using multivariate representational similarity analysis, we examined whether these examples of lower- and higher-level forms of social inference induced common or distinct patterns of brain activity. Distinct patterns of brain activity related to decoding of mental states from motion kinematics and belief-reasoning were found in lTPJp and the left IFG, but not the rTPJp. This may indicate that rTPJp supports a general mechanism for the representation of mental states. The divergent patterns of activation in lTPJp and frontal areas likely reflect differences in the degree of involvement of cognitive functions which support the basic mentalizing processes engaged by the two task groups.

Attention to the other's body sensations modulates the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Theory of Mind (ToM) is involved in experiencing the mental states and/or emotions of others. A further distinction can be drawn between emotion and perception/sensation. We investigated the mechanisms engaged when participants' attention is driven toward specific states. Accordingly, 21 right-handed healthy individuals performed a modified ToM task in which they reflected about someone's emotion or someone's body sensation, while they were in a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The analysis of brain activity evoked by this task suggests that the two conditions engage a widespread common network previously found involved in affective ToM (temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), parietal cortex, dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), medial- prefrontal cortex (MPFC), Insula). Critically, the key brain result is that body sensation implicates selectively ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). The current findings suggest that only paying attention to the other's body sensations modulates a self-related representation (VMPFC).

"Deep Dive into the Constructive Mind: Relating Interpretive Diversity Understanding to Anxiety Symptoms and Parental Practices in Middle Childhood"

The relation between the understanding of the mind as being constructive, anxiety, and parental factors is not fully elucidated. Interpretive diversity understanding represents an understanding that people can have a different interpretation of the same situation due to differences in beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge. We aim to bring together two approaches to this concept: the interpretive theory of mind (ToMi), and the constructivist theory of mind (ToMc) and relate them to anxiety symptoms and parental practices during middle childhood (8-12 years). In two studies, we used a restricted view paradigm to assess ToMi, a questionnaire to assess ToMc (the Constructivist Theory of Mind Interview, short written version in Study 1, and extended interview in Study 2) and parental and child reports of parental practices, as well as children’s anxiety symptoms. Results revealed that the two interpretive diversity understanding tasks were positively associated (Study 2). Overall, warm parental practices were positively associated with ToM tasks and a significant predictor for the ToMc interview answers. On the other hand, parental rejection and overprotection were negatively associated with performance on the ToMi task, with the ToMc score and positively with anxiety symptoms. Understanding the relationship between ToM, anxiety, and parental practices is essential for preventing early social and emotional difficulties during middle childhood.

Development of cool and hot theory of mind and cool and hot inhibitory control abilities from 3.5 to 6.5 years of age.

Attributing affectively neutral mental states such as thoughts (i.e., cool theory of mind, cool ToM) to others appears to be rooted in different processes than the ones involved in attributing affectively charged mental states such as emotions (i.e., hot ToM) to others. However, no study has investigated the developmental pattern of hot and cool ToM abilities using a similar task and the relative contribution of cool and hot inhibitory control (IC) to cool and hot ToM development. To do so, we tested 112 children aged 3.5 to 6.5 years on a cool and a hot version of a ToM task and on a cool and hot version of an IC task. We found that hot ToM abilities developed more rapidly than cool ToM. Importantly, we found that hot IC abilities mediated the relation between age and hot ToM abilities. Taken together, our results suggest that the ability to attribute emotions to others develops more rapidly than the ability to attribute thoughts and that the growing efficiency of hot ToM with age is specifically rooted in the growing efficiency of hot IC abilities.

Theory of Mind Among Swedish Children with ASD, Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Group.

The present study examined the role of IQ and the Theory of Mind understanding in children with an autism spectrum disorder and down syndrome. Sixty-six Swedish children with ASD (n = 26), DS (n = 18), and typically developed group (n = 22) ranged between 6 and 12years old were compared on ToM tasks consisted of standard ToM and IQ tasks. SPSS 25 program was used to analyze data. The results indicated that individuals with ASD reach a better understanding of first-order ToM tasks than children with DS. This picture was the same in the TD group to show better ability than children with ASD and DS on first-order tasks, except one task which was not found significant differences. To employ second-order TD performed better than clinical groups, while, there was no significant difference between ASD and DS. The scores for the third-order task in children with ASD were significantly better than children with DS.

Paliperidone Compared with Haloperidol on the Theory of Mind Tasks in Schizophrenia: A Pilot Trial.

PurposeTheory of mind (ToM) is an important part of social cognitive function and is associated with medial prefrontal cortical (mPFC) activity. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of paliperidone in improving ToM task performance in patients with schizophrenia compared with haloperidol.Patients and MethodsThis study was a single-center, single-blinded (assessor), parallel-group randomized clinical trial of patients with schizophrenia randomized to paliperidone or haloperidol. ToM was assessed at weeks 0, 8, 12, and 16 using the first-order belief, higher-order belief, faux-pas, and Reading the Mind in the Eyes tests. The primary outcome was the change in the ToM performance scores from baseline to after 16 weeks of treatment.ResultsThe participants received paliperidone (n = 29) or haloperidol (n = 31). For the first-order belief task, there were no between-group differences (P > 0.05) but time differences in both groups (P < 0.05). For the higher-order belief task, there were no between-group differences (P > 0.05), but there were time differences in both groups (P < 0.05) and a time×group interaction in the paliperidone group only (P < 0.05). For the faux-pas task, there was a difference between groups at week 16 (P < 0.05), and the improvement in time was significant for the paliperidone group only (P < 0.05). For the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, there was an improvement over time for the paliperidone group only (P < 0.05). Safety was manageable in both groups.ConclusionPaliperidone treatment might be more effective than haloperidol in improving ToM task performance in schizophrenia.Trial Registrationchictr.org.cn_identifier ChiCTR-IPR-15007635.

Teoría de la mente en trastornos del neurodesarrollo: más allá del trastorno del espectro autista

IntroductionTheory of mind (ToM) is the human ability to perceive, interpret, and attribute the mental states of other people, and the alteration of this cognitive function is a core symptom of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). In such other neurodevelopmental disorders as childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome (TS) that can present with cognitive dysfunctions, ToM has been less extensively studied, especially in the young population. The aim of the study was to compare advanced ToM between groups of young people diagnosed with OCD, TS, or ASD and a control group. MethodsClinical interviews were conducted with male patients aged between 11 and 17 years with a main diagnosis of OCD (n=19), TS (n=14), or ASD (n=18), and a control group (n=20). We administered instruments for estimating intelligence quotient and severity of psychiatric symptoms, and tasks to evaluate ToM (the “Stories from everyday life” task and the “Reading the mind in the eyes” test). ResultsYoung people with TS and with ASD present similar difficulties in solving advanced ToM tasks, whereas patients with childhood-onset OCD present similar results to controls. ConclusionsToM is altered in other neurodevelopmental disorders beyond ASD, such as TS.

Evaluation of Discriminative Detection Abilities of Social Cognition Measures for the Diagnosis of the Behavioral Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia: a Systematic Review.

The use of social tasks in the neuropsychological assessment of the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is at present not required by diagnostic guidelines, despite extensive literature shows relevant social cognitive dysfunctions in such patients. In this systematic review, we explored the clinical maturity of social cognition measures in the diagnosis of bvFTD. Papers were selected according to the PRISMA guidelines by searching the PubMed and Medline databases. Only papers reporting indices of diagnostic accuracy and/or sensitivity/specificity in classifying bvFTD from controls or from other relevant diseases were considered. Quality of evidence was assessed through QUADAS-2. Among the 663 articles entered in the paper selection only 14 papers were eligible for the scope of the present review and showed an overall moderate-to-low quality. The major risk of bias was the lack of pathological confirmation. The evaluation of the accuracy of social cognition tasks in bvFTD detection compared to normal controls, as well as in the discrimination with Alzheimer's disease and psychiatric patients, is mainly focused on emotion recognition and theory of mind. However, the use of different cognitive measures, variable task formats and the limited normative data hamper study comparability. Although literature seems to suggest that emotion recognition and ToM tasks could be the best choice to ensure a high diagnostic accuracy in clinical settings, further comparative studies are required and no recommendation concerning the use of a specific social task in bvFTD diagnosis can be currently provided.