Theory of mind and emotion-recognition functioning in autistic spectrum disorders and in psychiatric control and normal children.
The hypothesis was tested that weak theory of mind (ToM) and/or emotion recognition (ER) abilities are specific to subjects with autism. Differences in ToM and ER performance were examined between autistic (n = 20), pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) (n = 20), psychiatric control (n = 20), and normal children (n = 20). The clinical groups were matched person-to-person on age and verbal IQ. We used tasks for the matching and the context recognition of emotional expressions, and a set of first- and second-order ToM tasks. Autistic and PDD-NOS children could not be significantly differentiated from each other, nor could they be differentiated from the psychiatric controls with a diagnosis of ADHD (n = 9). The psychiatric controls with conduct disorder or dysthymia performed about as well as normal children. The variance in second-order ToM performance contributed most to differences between diagnostic groups.
Buitelaar
J K
JK
University of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
van der Wees
M
M
Swaab-Barneveld
H
H
van der Gaag
R J
RJ
D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D019263:Dysthymic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012016:Reference Values; D012938:Social Perception