Department of Applied Clinical Sciences and Biotechnology, University of L'Aquila, Via Vetoio, Località Coppito, 67100, L'Aquila, Italy.
Reference Centre for Autism of the Abruzzo Region, Local Health Unit ASL 1, L'Aquila, Italy.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2022 Mar;52(3):1283-1298. doi: 10.1007/s10803-021-05035-3. Epub 2021 Apr 28.
The differential diagnosis between schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) remains an important clinical question, because they have overlap in clinical diagnosis. This study explored the differences between ASD (n = 44) and SSD patients (n = 59), compared to typically developing peers (n = 63), in completing an advanced Theory of Mind (ToM) task. The outcome found several differences between groups. The SSD patients showed greater difficulty in understanding social scenarios, while ASD individuals understood the stories, but did not correctly identify the protagonist's intention. The interesting aspect of the results is that some ToM stories are more informative about the mentalistic reasoning of the two clinical groups, namely, the stories that investigate pretend, persuasion, double bluff and ironic joke constructs.
精神分裂症谱系障碍 (SSD) 和自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的鉴别诊断仍然是一个重要的临床问题，因为它们在临床诊断上存在重叠。本研究通过完成一项高级心理理论 (ToM) 任务，探讨了 ASD（n=44）和 SSD 患者（n=59）与正常发育同龄人（n=63）之间的差异。研究结果发现了各组之间的几个差异。SSD 患者在理解社交场景方面表现出更大的困难，而 ASD 个体理解了故事，但没有正确识别主角的意图。结果的一个有趣方面是，一些 ToM 故事更能说明这两个临床群体的心理推理，即调查假装、说服、双重欺骗和讽刺笑话结构的故事。
