Mindblind Eyes: An Absence of Spontaneous Theory of Mind in Asperger Syndrome

1. Sean Kim Ariel Strayer Mindblind Eyes:An Absence of Spontaneous Theory of Mind in Asperger Syndrome

2. Introduction • Individuals with autism: • Have impairments in social interaction and communication • Are unable to mentalize aka a deficit in theory of mind (ToM). This is known as the mindblindness hypothesis. • Mentalize– The automatic ability to attribute mental states to the self and others • Fail the verbally instructed Sally-Anne false-belief task (FBT)

3. Introduction • Asperger Syndrome (AS): • Autism spectrum disorder • Better cognitive and linguistic abilities • Can pass the Sally-Anne FBT • Throws wrench in the mindblindness hypothesis

4. Study Aim • To provide direct evidence by contrasting the ability to pass the standard FBT with spontaneous looking behavior during a nonverbal form of this task

5. Research Question • Will adults with Asperger syndrome, through their anticipatory looking, reveal a spontaneous capacity for false-belief attribution?

6. Subjects • 19 Asperger’s participants • 17 neurotypical participants • Matched by age and IQ • Participants were recruited through the autism research database at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience

7. Methods • Subjects completed various theory of mind tasks • Five first-order false-belief tests • Interpret another person’s behavior • Two second-order false-belief tests • Understand another’s emotion based on the false belief of a protagonist

8. Methods • Answers were marked as Pass/Fail (1/0) for each task • Additionally, subjects were asked to justify their choice • 1 pt.: Correct mental state justification • e.g. “Because she doesn’t know it’s in the box.” • .5 pt.: Correct non-mental state justification • e.g. “Because she left it in the basket.” • 0 pts.: Incorrect justification • e.g. “Because no-one stole it apart from Anne.”

9. Methods • The study focused on nonverbal false-belief tasks (FBT) • Subject’s eye gaze was tracked during a variation of the classic Sally-Anne FBT • Let’s go to the video!

11. Results

12. Results

13. Summary of Results • Subjects with Asperger syndrome and neurotypical adults showed no differences in age, IQ, and the verbal ToM tasks. • For the nonverbal, eye-tracking FBT, participants with Asperger’s showed significantly less looking bias toward the correct window. • The Asperger subjects made fewer correct first eye movements (saccades). • Participants with Asperger syndrome fixated for shorter durations on the actor’s face than neurotypical adults.

14. Discussion • Adults with Asperger syndrome do not spontaneously anticipate others’ actions in a nonverbal task • Asperger group exhibited correct anticipatory looking on familiarization trials when no belief reasoning was required • Is this an accurate method for measuring theory of mind?

15. Reference • Senju, A., Southgate, V., White, S., & Frith, U. (July 16, 2009). Mindblind eyes: An absence of spontaneous theory of mind in Asperger syndrome. Science, 325, 883-885.