Stone V E, Baron-Cohen S, Knight R T
University of Cambridge, Department of Experimental Psychology, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
J Cogn Neurosci. 1998 Sep;10(5):640-56. doi: 10.1162/089892998562942.
"Theory of mind," the ability to make inferences about others" mental states, seems to be a modular cognitive capacity that underlies humans" ability to engage in complex social interaction. It develops in several distinct stages, which can be measured with social reasoning tests of increasing difficulty. Individuals with Asperger"s syndrome, a mild form of autism, perform well on simpler theory of mind tests but show deficits on more developmentally advanced theory of mind tests. We tested patients with bilateral damage to orbito-frontal cortex (n = 5) and unilateral damage in left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (n = 5) on a series of theory of mind tasks varying in difficulty. Bilateral orbito-frontal lesion patients performed similarly to individuals with Asperger"s syndrome, performing well on simpler tests and showing deficits on tasks requiring more subtle social reasoning, such as the ability to recognize a faux pas. In contrast, no specific theory of mind deficits were evident in the unilateral dorsolateral frontal lesion patients. The dorsolateral lesion patients had difficulty only on versions of the tasks that placed demands on working memory.
“心理理论”，即推断他人心理状态的能力，似乎是一种模块化的认知能力，它是人类进行复杂社会互动能力的基础。它在几个不同阶段发展，这可以通过难度不断增加的社会推理测试来衡量。阿斯伯格综合征（一种轻度自闭症）患者在较简单的心理理论测试中表现良好，但在更具发展性的高级心理理论测试中则表现出缺陷。我们对双侧眶额皮质受损的患者（n = 5）和左侧背外侧前额叶皮质单侧受损的患者（n = 5）进行了一系列难度各异的心理理论任务测试。双侧眶额皮质损伤患者的表现与阿斯伯格综合征患者相似，在较简单的测试中表现良好，而在需要更微妙社会推理的任务（如识别失礼行为的能力）中表现出缺陷。相比之下，单侧背外侧额叶损伤患者没有明显的特定心理理论缺陷。背外侧损伤患者仅在对工作记忆有要求的任务版本上存在困难。
