Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Psychiatry Res. 2017 Dec;258:15-20. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.09.060. Epub 2017 Sep 25.
Spontaneous mentalizing ability has been linked to symptoms severity in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we investigated whether in neurotypicals, higher levels of ASD symptomatology could also be linked to lower levels of spontaneous mentalizing, by comparing neurotypicals scoring high with those scoring low on the short Autism Spectrum Quotient. Participants watched movies during which they, and another agent, formed beliefs about the location of an object. These beliefs could influence reaction times (RT) to that object in the outcome phase. We expected participants with more ASD symptoms to show less spontaneous mentalizing, as reflected by a smaller effect of the other agent's beliefs on RT patterns (the ToM index). In contrast, the effect of own beliefs on RTs, reflecting an egocentric bias, was expected to be larger in the high-scoring group. Results showed that groups differed in the effect of the agent's beliefs; the ToM index was highly significant in the low-scoring group, while being absent in the high-scoring group. No difference in egocentric bias was observed. These findings suggest that the relationship between levels of ASD symptomatology and spontaneous mentalizing is not only present in individuals with ASD, but also in the neurotypical population.
自发心理理论能力与自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）个体的症状严重程度有关。在这里，我们通过比较自闭症谱系商数得分高的和得分低的神经典型者，调查在神经典型者中，ASD 症状的严重程度是否也与自发心理理论能力的降低有关。参与者观看电影，在电影中，他们和另一个代理形成了对物体位置的信念。这些信念可能会影响结果阶段对该物体的反应时间（RT）。我们预计，具有更多 ASD 症状的参与者表现出较少的自发心理理论能力，这反映在其他代理的信念对 RT 模式的影响较小（心理理论指数）。相比之下，在高得分组中，自己的信念对 RTs 的影响，反映了自我中心偏见，预计会更大。结果表明，两组在代理信念的影响上存在差异；低得分组的心理理论指数非常显著，而高得分组则不存在。没有观察到自我中心偏见的差异。这些发现表明，ASD 症状水平与自发心理理论能力之间的关系不仅存在于 ASD 个体中，也存在于神经典型人群中。
