Are There “Autistic‐like” Features in Congenitally Blind Children?

Brown, Rachel; Hobson, R. Peter; Lee, A; Stevenson, Jennifer L.

doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01696.x

Cited by 226 publications

(148 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Congenitally blind children are delayed in passing standard ToM tasks (21,22,(33)(34)(35)(36)(37). A major challenge to interpreting these data is disentangling whether blind children are delayed in acquiring ToM or whether blind children are confused by the experimental tasks.…”

Section: Reasoning About Beliefs Based On Hearing and Seeing In Eb Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind

Bedny

Pascual‐Leone

Saxe

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

100

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Humans reason about the mental states of others; this capacity is called Theory of Mind (ToM). In typically developing adults, ToM is supported by a consistent group of brain regions: the bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), precuneus (PC), and anterior temporal sulci (aSTS). How experience and intrinsic biological factors interact to produce this adult functional profile is not known. In the current study we investigate the role of visual experience in the development of the ToM network by studying congenitally blind adults. In experiment 1, participants listened to stories and answered true/false questions about them. The stories were either about mental or physical representations of reality (e.g., photographs). In experiment 2, participants listened to stories about people's beliefs based on seeing or hearing; people's bodily sensations (e.g., hunger); and control stories without people. Participants judged whether each story had positive or negative valance. We find that ToM brain regions of sighted and congenitally blind adults are similarly localized and functionally specific. In congenitally blind adults, reasoning about mental states leads to activity in bilateral TPJ, MPFC, PC, and aSTS. These brain regions responded more to passages about beliefs than passages about nonbelief representations or passages about bodily sensations. Reasoning about mental states that are based on seeing is furthermore similar in congenitally blind and sighted individuals. Despite their different developmental experience, congenitally blind adults have a typical ToM network. We conclude that the development of neural mechanisms for ToM depends on innate factors and on experiences represented at an abstract level, amodally.

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Section: Reasoning About Beliefs Based On Hearing and Seeing In Eb Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Visual deprivation does, however, change the trajectory of ToM development. Blind children appear to be delayed in passing ToM tasks (21,22). It is therefore possible that, in congenitally blind adults, similar ToM performance is supported by different neural structures than in sighted adults.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind

Bedny

Pascual‐Leone

Saxe

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Individual differences are found in the timetable with which the various achievements in mindreading may appear (Scholl & Leslie, 1999); these differences may be related to birth order (Dunn, Brown, Slomkowski, Tesla, & Youngblade, 1991;Perner, Ruffman, & Leekam, 1994) as well as to a rich exposure to elder children and adults (Lewis, Freeman, Kyriakidou, Maridaki-Kassotaki, & Berridge, 1996). Conversely, the maturation of mindreading may be slightly delayed in children who are congenitally blind (Brown, Hobson, & Stevenson, 1997) or deaf (Peterson & Siegal, 1995). This is unsurprising: the maturation of innate faculties often requires triggering or specific input from the environment or is guided, to different extents, by the external world (e.g., Bowlby, 1969;Chomsky, 1980;Fodor, 1981Fodor, , 1998Samuels, 2002;Scholl & Leslie, 1999).…”

Section: Step IIImentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking the ontogeny of mindreading

Tirassa

Bosco

Colle

2006

Consciousness and Cognition

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We propose a mentalistic and nativist view of human early mental and social life and of the ontogeny of mindreading. We define the mental state of sharedness as the primitive, one-sided capability to take oneÕs own mental states as mutually known to an interactant. We argue that this capability is an innate feature of the human mind, which the child uses to make a subjective sense of the world and of her actions. We argue that the child takes all of her mental states as shared with her caregivers. This allows her to interact with her caregivers in a mentalistic way from the very beginning and provides the grounds on which the later maturation of mindreading will build. As the latter process occurs, the child begins to understand the mental world in terms of differences between the mental states of different agents; subjectively, this also corresponds to the birth of privateness.

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“…Visual impairment is characteristically under-diagnosed in people with complex needs as the signs can be difficult to delineate. Diagnostic overshadowing where one condition may mask another is common in people with intellectual disabilities (Brown et al 1997;Cass 1998;Turner 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autism and Visual Impairment: a Review of the Literature

Butchart¹,

Long²,

Brown

et al. 2017

Rev J Autism Dev Disord

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Purpose This review presents the evidence on the prevalence of visual impairments in children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and the similar behavioural traits associated with both visual impairment and autism. Method A systematic literature review was conducted using online databases. Results Seven studies explored the incidence of visual impairments in people with ASD and found a higher incidence of strabismus (squint) (8.3%) than in a comparable child population (1.5 to 5.3%). Eleven studies identified behavioural traits common to both autistic and visually impaired populations. The majority were small-scale screening studies using varied methodologies, constituting an emerging field of research. Conclusion Further large-scale, multicentre studies are required to accurately identify prevalence rates of ophthalmic conditions in people with ASD. There is a small but evolving evidence base that establishes behavioural and linguistic traits common to both visual impairment and autism.

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Are There “Autistic‐like” Features in Congenitally Blind Children?

Cited by 226 publications

References 34 publications

Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind

Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind

Rethinking the ontogeny of mindreading

Autism and Visual Impairment: a Review of the Literature

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