Dissociation between key processes of social cognition in autism: impaired mentalizing but intact sense of agency.
Deficits in social cognition and interaction, such as in mentalizing and imitation behavior, are hallmark features of autism spectrum disorders. Both imitation and mentalizing are at the core of the sense of agency, the awareness that we are the initiators of our own behavior. Little evidence exists regarding the sense of agency in autism. Thus, we compared high-functioning adults with autism to healthy control subjects using an action monitoring and attribution task. Subjects with autism did not show deficits in this task, yet they showed significant mentalizing deficits. Our findings indicate a dissociation between the sense of agency and ascription of mental states in autism. We propose that social-cognitive deficits in autism may arise on a higher level than that of action monitoring and awareness.
David
Nicole
N
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne, Kerpener Street 62, Cologne, Germany. nicole.david@uk-koeln.de
Gawronski
Astrid
A
Santos
Natacha S
NS
Huff
Wolfgang
W
Lehnhardt
Fritz-Georg
FG
Newen
Albert
A
Vogeley
Kai
K
D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001364:Awareness; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012938:Social Perception
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