title: Does theory of mind performance differ in children with early-onset and regressive autism?
abstract: A deficit in theory of mind (ToM), or the ability to infer the mental states of others, has been implicated as one of the major characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD); however, little attention has been devoted to possible differences in ToM ability within ASD. The current study examined ToM performance in children with early-onset autism and regressive autism in comparison to typically developing children. Results indicated that children in the regressive autism group performed significantly better than the early-onset autism group on the non-verbal appearance-reality task. Additionally, Fisher's exact tests indicated a pattern of lowest scores in the early-onset group and highest scores in the typically developing group, whereas the regressive autism group tended to score in between the early-onset and typically developing groups. The apparent heterogeneity in ToM performance within ASD could account for the lack of universality in ToM ability found in previous studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.forename: Wendy A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: Angela F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Lukowski
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Osann
authors.forename: Maryam M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Abdullah
authors.forename: Agnes R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Ly
authors.forename: Kara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Thorsen
authors.forename: M Anne
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Spence
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012043:Regression, Psychology