title: Mindblind eyes: an absence of spontaneous theory of mind in Asperger syndrome.
abstract: Adults with Asperger syndrome can understand mental states such as desires and beliefs (mentalizing) when explicitly prompted to do so, despite having impairments in social communication. We directly tested the hypothesis that such individuals nevertheless fail to mentalize spontaneously. To this end, we used an eye-tracking task that has revealed the spontaneous ability to mentalize in typically developing infants. We showed that, like infants, neurotypical adults' (n = 17 participants) eye movements anticipated an actor's behavior on the basis of her false belief. This was not the case for individuals with Asperger syndrome (n = 19). Thus, these individuals do not attribute mental states spontaneously, but they may be able to do so in explicit tasks through compensatory learning.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK. a.senju@bbk.ac.uk
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Senju
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Southgate
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Frith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012438:Saccades; D055815:Young Adult