Successful social interactions are assumed to depend on theory of mind—the ability to represent others’ mental states—yet most studies of the relation between theory of mind and social-interactive success rely on non-interactive tasks that do not adequately capture the spontaneous engagement of theory of mind, a crucial component of everyday social interactions. We addressed this gap by establishing a novel observational rating scale to measure the spontaneous use of theory of mind (or lack thereof) within naturalistic conversations ( conversational ToM; cToM). In 50 age- and gender-matched dyads of autistic and typically developing youth aged 8–16 years (three dyad types: autistic–typically developing, typically developing–typically developing, autistic–autistic), we assessed cToM during 5-min unstructured conversations. We found that ratings on the cToM Negative scale, reflecting theory-of-mind-related violations of neurotypical conversational norms, were negatively associated with two forms of non-interactive theory of mind: visual-affective and spontaneous. In contrast, the cToM Positive scale, reflecting explicit mental state language and perspective-taking, was not associated with non-interactive theory of mind. Furthermore, autistic youth were rated higher than typically developing youth on cToM Negative, but the groups were rated similarly on cToM Positive. Together, these findings provide insight into multiple aspects of theory of mind in conversation and reveal a nuanced picture of the relative strengths and difficulties among autistic youth. Lay abstract Conversation is a key part of everyday social interactions. Previous studies have suggested that conversational skills are related to theory of mind, the ability to think about other people’s mental states, such as beliefs, knowledge, and emotions. Both theory of mind and conversation are common areas of difficulty for autistic people, yet few studies have investigated how people, including autistic people, use theory of mind during conversation. We developed a new way of measuring cToM using two rating scales: cToM Positive captures behaviors that show consideration of a conversation partner’s mental states, such as referring to their thoughts or feelings, whereas cToM Negative captures behaviors that show a lack of theory of mind through violations of neurotypical conversational norms, such as providing too much, too little, or irrelevant information. We measured cToM in 50 pairs of autistic and typically developing children (ages 8–16 years) during 5-min “getting to know you” conversations. Compared to typically developing children, autistic children displayed more frequent cToM Negative behaviors but very similar rates of cToM Positive behaviors. Across both groups, cToM Negative (but not Positive) ratings were related to difficulties in recognizing emotions from facial expressions and a lower tendency to talk about others’ mental states spontaneously (i.e., without being instructed to do so), which suggests that both abilities are important for theory of mind in conversation. Altogether, this study highlights both strengths and difficulties among autistic individuals, and it suggests possible avenues for further research and for improving conversational skills.
Brainhack is an innovative meeting format that promotes scientific collaboration and education in an open, inclusive environment. This NeuroView describes the myriad benefits for participants and the research community and how Brainhacks complement conventional formats to augment scientific progress.
Brainhack is an innovative meeting format that promotes scientific collaboration and education in an open and inclusive environment. Departing from the formats of typical scientific workshops, these events are based on grassroots projects and training, and foster open and reproducible scientific practices. We describe here the multifaceted, lasting benefits of Brainhacks for individual participants, particularly early career researchers. We further highlight the unique contributions that Brainhacks can make to the research community, contributing to scientific progress by complementing opportunities available in conventional formats.
Sharing emotional experiences impacts how we perceive and interact with the world, but the neural mechanisms that support this sharing are not well characterized. In this study, participants (N = 52) watched videos in an MRI scanner in the presence of an unfamiliar peer. Videos varied in valence and social context (i.e., participants believed their partner was viewing the same (joint condition) or a different (solo condition) video). Reported togetherness increased during positive videos regardless of social condition, indicating that positive contexts may lessen the experience of being alone.Two analysis approaches were used to examine both sustained neural activity averaged over time and dynamic synchrony throughout the videos. Both approaches revealed clusters in the medial prefrontal cortex that were more responsive to the joint condition. We observed a time-averaged social-emotion interaction in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, although this region did not demonstrate synchrony effects.Alternatively, social-emotion interactions in the amygdala and superior temporal sulcus showed greater neural synchrony in the joint compared to solo conditions during positive videos, but the opposite pattern for negative videos. These findings suggest that positive stimuli may be more salient when experienced together, suggesting a mechanism for forming social bonds.
Neural reward network sensitivity in youth is proposed to differentially impact the effects of social environments on social outcomes. The COVID‐19 pandemic provided an opportunity to test this hypothesis within a context of diminished in‐person social interaction. We examined whether neural sensitivity to interactive social reward moderates the relationship between a frequency of interactive or passive social activity and social satisfaction. Survey reports of frequency of interactions with friends, passive social media use, and loneliness and social satisfaction were gathered in 2020 during mandated precautions limiting in‐person contact. A subset of participants (age = 10–17) previously participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examining social‐interactive reward during a simulated peer interaction (survey n = 76; survey + fMRI n = 40). We found evidence of differential response to social context, such that youth with higher neural reward sensitivity showed a negative association between a frequency of interactive connections with friends and a combined loneliness and social dissatisfaction component (LSDC) score, whereas those with lower sensitivity showed the opposite effect. Further, high reward sensitivity was associated with greater LSDC as passive social media use increased, whereas low reward sensitivity showed the opposite. This indicates that youth with greater sensitivity to social‐interactive reward may be more susceptible to negative effects of infrequent contact than their low reward‐sensitive counterparts, who instead maintain social well‐being through passive viewing of social content. These differential outcomes could have implications for supporting youth during times of major social disruption as well as ensuring mental health and well‐being more broadly.
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