The DOI matches its Crossref record; 29 of the 29 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Spontaneous Theory of Mind and Its Absence in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Open accessAbstract
Theory of mind, the cognitive capacity to infer others’ mental states, is crucial for the development of social communication. The impairment of theory of mind may relate to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which is characterized by profound difficulties in social interaction and communication. In the current article, I summarize recent updates in theory of mind research utilizing the spontaneous false belief test, which assesses participants’ spontaneous tendency to attribute belief status to others. These studies reveal that young infants pass the spontaneous false belief test well before they can pass the same task when explicitly asked to answer. By contrast, high-functioning adults with ASD, who can easily pass the false belief task when explicitly asked to, do not show spontaneous false belief attribution. These findings suggest that the capacity for theory of mind develops much earlier than was previously thought, and the absence of spontaneous theory of mind may relate to impairment in social interaction and communication found in ASD.
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“Individuals with ASD often show difficulty in evaluating social cues and in appropriately interpreting another person’s experiences or emotions, and may display a preoccupation with self or limited interest in others 14–19.”
From Reduced sociability and social agency encoding in adult Shank3-mutant mice are restored through gene re-expression in real time (2021) · cites this paper as [19]
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“Individuals with ASD are often described as having inability to organize social information or appropriately interpret the state and experience of others 14–19.”
From Reduced sociability and social agency encoding in adult Shank3-mutant mice are restored through gene re-expression in real time (2021) · cites this paper as [19]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Senju, A.
- Affiliations
- University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Senju, Atsushi
- ORCID
- Senju, Atsushi
- Venue
- The Neuroscientist
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2011-05-23
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 108-113
- ISSN
- 1073-8584 (ISSN-L)
- 1089-4098
- PMC
- PMC3796729
- OpenAlex
- W2116421617
- Cited by
- 219
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 19.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- The Neuroscientist (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (acceptedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- theory of mind, autism spectrum disorder, false belief test, infant social cognition, social communication, high-functioning adults
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Culture, Humans, Infant, Interpersonal Relations, Neuropsychological Tests, Social Perception, Theory of Mind
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