Laboratory of Psychology and Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France.
Neuropsychology. 2011 Nov;25(6):741-51. doi: 10.1037/a0024408.
The main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Huntington's disease (HD) on cognitive and affective Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities. The relation of ToM performance and executive functions was also examined.
Eighteen HD patients, early in the course of the disease, and 18 healthy volunteers matched for age and educational levels, were given two tasks: a nonverbal cognitive ToM task assessing attribution of intentions to others and a revised version of the 'Reading the Mind in the Eyes' test, which is an affective ToM task assessing the understanding of other people's mental states from their eyes. Participants were also given various executive tests.
The two ToM tasks revealed a significant impairment of ToM abilities in HD patients. Executive functioning was impaired in the HD group and ToM performance on the attribution of intentions task was dependent on several executive processes.
Our results are consistent with the idea that both cognitive and affective aspects of ToM could be impaired in HD patients, indicating that cortico-subcortical circuits are underlying higher social functions such as ToM. The results are also consistent with the idea that only a few executive mechanisms regulate the ToM abilities we tested in this work. They also provide a basis for the understanding of the disorganized behavior and the breakdown of interpersonal relationships in daily life after HD.
本研究的主要目的是探讨亨廷顿病（HD）对认知和情感心理理论（ToM）能力的影响。还研究了 ToM 表现与执行功能之间的关系。
18 名 HD 患者（疾病早期）和 18 名年龄和教育程度相匹配的健康志愿者参加了两项任务：一项非言语认知 ToM 任务，评估对他人意图的归因；以及修订版的“读心测试”，这是一项情感 ToM 任务，评估从他人的眼睛理解他人心理状态的能力。参与者还接受了各种执行功能测试。
两项 ToM 任务均显示 HD 患者的 ToM 能力存在显著障碍。HD 组的执行功能受损，意图归因任务的 ToM 表现依赖于几种执行过程。
我们的结果与以下观点一致，即认知和情感方面的 ToM 都可能在 HD 患者中受损，表明皮质-基底节回路是更高的社会功能（如 ToM）的基础。结果还与以下观点一致，即只有少数执行机制调节我们在这项工作中测试的 ToM 能力。它们还为理解 HD 后日常生活中的紊乱行为和人际关系破裂提供了基础。
