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Familiarity modulates the functional relationship between theory of mind and autobiographical memory.

ABSTRACT: Qualitative and quantitative reviews of the neuroimaging literature show that overlapping brain regions support theory of mind (ToM) and autobiographical memory (AM). This overlap has been taken to suggest that individuals draw on past personal experiences to infer others' mental states, but work with amnesic people shows that ToM does not always depend on AM. One variable that may determine the extent to which one relies on AM when inferring another's thoughts and feelings during ToM is whether that individual is personally known. To test this possibility, participants were scanned with fMRI as they remembered past experiences in response to personal photos ('AM' condition) and imagined others' experiences in response to photos of personally familiar ('pToM' condition) and unfamiliar ('ToM' condition) others. Spatiotemporal Partial Least Squares was used to identify the spatial and temporal characteristics of neural activation patterns associated with AM, pToM, and ToM. We found that the brain regions supporting pToM more closely resembled those supporting AM relative to ToM involving unfamiliar others, with the greatest degree of overlap within midline regions. A complementary finding was the observation of striking differences between pToM and ToM such that midline regions associated with AM predominated during pToM, whereas more lateral regions associated with social semantic memory predominated during ToM. Overall, this study demonstrates that ToM involves a dynamic interplay between AM and social semantic memory that is biased towards AM when a personally familiar other is the subject of the mental state inference.

SUBMITTER: Rabin JS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4889427 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Familiarity modulates the functional relationship between theory of mind and autobiographical memory.

Rabin Jennifer S JS Rosenbaum R Shayna RS

NeuroImage 20120511 1

Qualitative and quantitative reviews of the neuroimaging literature show that overlapping brain regions support theory of mind (ToM) and autobiographical memory (AM). This overlap has been taken to suggest that individuals draw on past personal experiences to infer others' mental states, but work with amnesic people shows that ToM does not always depend on AM. One variable that may determine the extent to which one relies on AM when inferring another's thoughts and feelings during ToM is whether ...[more]

PMID: 22584225

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Project description:Background: Several meta-analyses highlight pronounced problems in general Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to infer other persons' mental states, in patients with psychosis in comparison to non-clinical controls. In addition, first studies suggest associations between Hyper-ToM, an exaggerated inference of mental states to others, and delusions. Research on different ToM subtypes (Cognitive ToM, Affective ToM, and Hyper-ToM) and symptom clusters of psychosis (positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms) have gathered conflicting findings. Thus, the present study examined group differences between patients with psychosis and non-clinical controls concerning Cognitive ToM/Affective ToM and Hyper-ToM. Further, the association between ToM subtypes and symptom clusters (positive, negative, and disorganized symptoms) were examined. Methods: Patients with psychotic disorders (n = 64, 1/3 with present delusions indicated by a minimum score of four in the PANSS P1 item) and non-clinical controls (n = 21) were examined with assessments of Cognitive ToM and Affective ToM abilities and Hyper-ToM errors using the Frith-Happé animations. Psychopathology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Results: Patients with psychosis presented more pronounced problems in Cognitive and Affective ToM in comparison to non-clinical controls, whereas there were no group differences with regard to Hyper-ToM errors. Furthermore, deficits in Cognitive ToM were associated with general delusions, whereas problems in Affective ToM were associated with negative and disorganized symptoms. In addition, there was no association between Hyper-ToM errors and any symptoms when controlling for years of education. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that deficits in ToM subtypes might not be directly related to delusions and positive symptoms and are in line with more recently developed cognitive models of delusions. In addition, our results support the well-established finding of associations between ToM alterations and negative or disorganized symptoms. Our results shed light on the role of different dimensions of ToM in specific symptoms of psychosis.

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Familiarity modulates the functional relationship between theory of mind and autobiographical memory.

Publications

Familiarity modulates the functional relationship between theory of mind and autobiographical memory.

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