Impairments of Theory of Mind disrupt patterns of brain activity

心理理论的损伤扰乱了大脑活动的模式

• 批准号: 8528734
• 负责人: Rebecca R Saxe
• 金额: $ 30.82万
• 依托单位: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-10 至 2017-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8528734
• 关键词: 10 year old; 5 year old; Adult; Affect; Area; Behavior; Behavioral; Bilateral; Brain; Brain region; Child; Childhood; Clinical; Cognitive; Communication; Communities; Data; Data Analyses; Development; Disease; Educational process of instructing; Emotions; Human; Image; Impairment; Individual; Judgment; Knowledge; Learning; Medial; Mind; Morality; Morals; Neurosciences; Parietal; Participant; Pattern; Phenotype; Prefrontal Cortex; Recruitment Activity; Research Personnel; Scientific Advances and Accomplishments; Severities; Structure; Symptoms; Techniques; Testing; Thinking; aged; autism spectrum disorder; base; cognitive neuroscience; data acquisition; developmental disease; experience; information organization; interest; mental state; neuromechanism; outreach; relating to nervous system; research study; social; social cognition; theories; tool

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Humans think constantly about one another's thoughts, for example, in order to communicate, to teach, to learn from, to cooperate with, to compete with, and to deceive one another. This ability to fluently infer what others are thinking i impaired in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), but the neural basis of this impairment is poorly understood. In particular, brain regions involved in thinking about other people's thoughts are not reliably smaller or less active in individuals with ASD. This proposal will test the possibilities that (i) reduced magnitude of activity, (ii) disorganization of the patern of activity, and/or (iii) altered connectivity of these brain regions that leads to social impairmets in ASD. We will test these hypotheses about the function of ToM regions in adults with ASD, in three key areas of ToM: understanding others' thoughts that are relevant for moral judgments (e.g. intentional vs. accidental harm), for inferring emotions, and for effective communication. Since ASD is a developmental disorder, it is critical to understand the developmental trajectory of these brain regions as well as their end state. Consequently, we will also test these hypotheses in children aged 5-12 years. We will also test whether the selectivity or pattern of activation in ToM brain regions changes over development.

描述（由申请人提供）：人类不断地思考彼此的想法，例如，为了彼此沟通、教导、学习、合作、竞争和欺骗。自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 患者流畅地推断他人想法的能力受到损害，但人们对这种损害的神经基础知之甚少。特别是，自闭症谱系障碍患者的大脑中负责思考他人想法的区域并不一定较小或较不活跃。该提案将测试以下可能性：(i) 活动强度降低，(ii) 活动模式混乱，和/或 (iii) 这些大脑区域的连接性改变导致自闭症谱系障碍的社交障碍。我们将在 ToM 的三个关键领域测试这些关于 ToM 区域在 ASD 成人中的功能的假设：理解与道德判断相关的他人想法（例如故意伤害与意外伤害）、推断情绪以及有效沟通。由于自闭症谱系障碍是一种发育障碍，因此了解这些大脑区域的发育轨迹及其最终状态至关重要。因此，我们还将在 5-12 岁的儿童中测试这些假设。我们还将测试 ToM 大脑区域的选择性或激活模式是否会随着发育而变化。