Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE
Volume 17, Issue 5, Pages 786-796Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/desc.12167
Keywords
-
Funding
- Medical Research Council [G9817803] Funding Source: Medline
- Economic and Social Research Council [ES/H007059/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Medical Research Council [G9817803] Funding Source: researchfish
- ESRC [ES/H007059/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- MRC [G9817803] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulty understanding other minds (Theory of Mind; ToM), with atypical processing evident at both behavioural and neural levels. Individuals with conduct problems and high levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits (CP/HCU) exhibit reduced responsiveness to others' emotions and difficulties interacting with others, but nonetheless perform normally in experimental tests of ToM. The present study aimed to examine the neural underpinnings of ToM in children (aged 10-16) with ASD (N=16), CP/HCU (N=16) and typically developing (TD) controls (N=16) using a non-verbal cartoon vignette task. Whilst individuals with ASD were predicted to show reduced fMRI responses across regions involved in ToM processing, CP/HCU individuals were predicted to show no differences compared with TD controls. The analyses indicated that neural responses did not differ between TD and CP/HCU groups during ToM. TD and CP/HCU children exhibited significantly greater medial prefrontal cortex responses during ToM than did the ASD group. Within the ASD group, responses in medial prefrontal cortex and right temporoparietal junction (TPJ) correlated with symptom severity as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Findings suggest that although both ASD and CP/HCU are characterized by social difficulties, only children with ASD display atypical neural processing associated with ToM.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available