Neurological Evidence For Theory Of Mind Deficit Flashcards
How do we define autism?
Reduced social interest and affect
Abnormal language development
Lack of coordination of gaze/facial expressions
What’s wing and Gould’s triad of impairments in autism
Impairment in imagination - can’t understand others point of view
Impairment in social relationships - deficits in understanding how to behave with others
Impairment in social communication -
Deficits in how to communicate with others
What did Baron Cohen do and 1999 find
Baron Cohen (1999)
Examined brain activity when doing TOM - mind in eyes test
ASD performed worse than controls
Decreased activation in frontal lobes and the amygdala for ASD suffers
Increased activation in temporal lobes - an area used for visual processing
What does baron cohens 1999 study show
The lower activation in areas responsible for emotional and social information processing - frontal lobes and amygdala - when performing TOM tests support that there is a deficit
Higher activation in verbal processing areas - temporal lobe show that ToM is more effortful to ASD suffers and so they use compensatory strategies
How can we critique baron cohens study?
Ropar and Mitchell (2007) found conflicting evidence with this, 15 yr olds were as successful in identifying Tom emotions in the eyes task compared to controls, suggests that activation in baron cohens study was due to something other than a ToM deficit
What did Just et al (2014)do?
Scanned HFA and controls when they were thinking of social interactions
What did Just et al (2014) find
That the activity in the posterior midline region was correlated with behavioural measures of social processing ability
What does just et al’s 2014 findings show
As brain activity could be significantly correlated to social behavioural measures scores, it shows there could be neurological patterns underlying deficits in ToM.
Therefore this neurological study provides evidence for the ToM deficit in ASD
What is a criticism of Just et al (2014) findings?
They only examined thinking about social interactions, not a very ecologically valid measure of how people may react to social interactions in everyday life
What did Daprettos (2006) study do
He did FMRI recordings for both the observation and imitation of of emotional expressions
What did Daprettos (2006) study find
Those with autism had decreased activity in the amygdala an area known for emotional processing
As well as no activity in the mirror Neuton system of the inferior frontal gurus
What does Daprettos (2006) study show
Deficit in MNS could lead to social communication difficulties as can’t dont response the same to mirrored actions, this could cause problems in ToM and be taken as evidence for a potential deficit
What’s a criticism of Daprettos 2006 study
No supporting evidence that the MNS activity is linked to performance on ToM task - would need people to perform a ToM task and then track activity to be sure
What would the key points to the essay be and who supports each one
- Baron Cohen (1999) - activation levels when performing ToM tasks show neurological evidence
- Just (2014) - the social brain network responds differently in people with ASD and the social brain network would be used for ToM
