Pluta Agnieszka, Gawron Natalia, Sobańska Marta, Wójcik Adrian Dominik, Łojek Emilia
Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw.
Faculty of Humanities, Nicolaus Copernicus University.
Neuropsychology. 2017 Sep;31(6):666-681. doi: 10.1037/neu0000379. Epub 2017 May 1.
Theory of mind (ToM) is a complex, high-level cognitive function that allows people to infer the cognitive and affective mental states of others. Previous studies have produced limited and frequently contradictory findings on the neuropsychological underpinnings of ToM performance in patients with stroke. The aim of the present study is to investigate neuropsychological mechanisms of cognitive and affective theory of mind dysfunctions in patients with stroke.
Fifty-eight patients with stroke and 22 healthy controls matched in age, gender, and education level underwent robust neuropsychological examination of their pragmatic abilities, executive functions, attention, memory, psychomotor speed, and visuospatial abilities as well as a cognitive and affective ToM assessment.
Patients with stroke demonstrated impaired performance in all ToM tasks. While pragmatic competence and, to a lesser degree, executive functions had the strongest contribution to ToM impairments, attention and general cognitive functioning did not directly affect mentalizing abilities, as demonstrated by a path analysis. Our study reveals the different roles of cognitive functions in cognitive and affective components of ToM. Executive functions contributed only to the cognitive components of ToM.
Deficits in cognitive aspects of ToM are best explained by impairment of pragmatic competence and executive functions. In contrast, executive dysfunction does not affect the ability to understand the affective mental states of others. (PsycINFO Database Record
心理理论（ToM）是一种复杂的高级认知功能，它使人们能够推断他人的认知和情感心理状态。先前的研究在中风患者ToM表现的神经心理学基础方面得出的结论有限且常常相互矛盾。本研究的目的是探讨中风患者认知和情感心理理论功能障碍的神经心理学机制。
58名中风患者和22名年龄、性别及教育水平相匹配的健康对照者接受了全面的神经心理学检查，包括语用能力、执行功能、注意力、记忆力、心理运动速度和视觉空间能力，以及认知和情感ToM评估。
中风患者在所有ToM任务中表现受损。路径分析表明，虽然语用能力以及在较小程度上执行功能对ToM损伤的影响最大，但注意力和一般认知功能并未直接影响心理化能力。我们的研究揭示了认知功能在ToM的认知和情感成分中的不同作用。执行功能仅对ToM的认知成分有影响。
ToM认知方面的缺陷最好用语用能力和执行功能受损来解释。相比之下，执行功能障碍并不影响理解他人情感心理状态的能力。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
