Development and neurophysiology of mentalizing

Abstract

The mentalizing (theory of mind) system of the brain is probably in operation from ca. 18 months of age, allowing implicit attribution of intentions and other mental states. Between the ages of 4 and 6 years explicit mentalizing becomes possible, and from this age children are able to explain the misleading reasons that have given rise to a false belief. Neuroimaging studies of mentalizing have so far only been carried out in adults. They reveal a system with three components consistently activated during both implicit and explicit mentalizing tasks: medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), temporal poles and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). The functions of these components can be elucidated, to some extent, from their role in other tasks used in neuroimaging studies. Thus, the MPFC region is probably the basis of the decoupling mechanism that distinguishes mental state representations from physical state representations; the STS region is probably the basis of the detection of agency, and the temporal poles might be involved in access to social knowledge in the form of scripts. The activation of these components in concert appears to be critical to mentalizing.

Executive dysfunction in autism☆

“…Theory of mind Theory of mind, or mentalising, refers to the ability to identify, attribute and manipulate mental states such as beliefs and desires. This abilitydevelops rapidly inyoung children [5], but at an extremely slow rate in autism [6]. A widely used test of theory of mind is the 'Sally-Anne test' [7].…”

“…The most well-known of these is the theory of mind deficit hypothesis [5][6][7][8][9][10], and another account is that of weak central coherence [11][12][13][14][15] (see Box 1). Although these two accounts together can explain many of the deficits and assets associated with autism, repetitive behaviours and restricted interests might best be explained by a third cognitive theory: that of executive dysfunction.…”

Autism and the development of face processing

“…Grossman et al (2005) suggested that normal STS functioning is required for perception of biological motion, as repeated transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) disrupted cortical activity in the posterior STS and reduced perceptual sensitivity to point-light animations in healthy adults [36]. The STS has also been implicated in social cognition and attribution of mental states and intentions [40][41][42][43][44]. In one study, the STS was activated by simple geometric shapes, which had no resemblance to faces or body parts except that their patterns of motion conveyed ''intention'' [43].…”

Change in emotional self‐concept following socio‐cognitive training relates to structural plasticity of the prefrontal cortex

“…The observing‐thoughts meditation aimed at training meta‐awareness about one's thought processes as well as the ability to detach from one's thoughts (Ricard, 2008). The Perspective Dyad was developed to train perspective‐taking onto aspects of the self and the mind of others and was inspired by both work in the therapeutic domain such as the Internal Family Systems model (IFS) (Holmes et al., 2007; Schwartz, 1997) and research about socio‐cognitive abilities such as perspective‐taking on the beliefs, thoughts, and intentions of others (Frith & Frith, 2003; Singer, 2012). Overall, the Perspective Module can be regarded as an intervention that selectively trains perspective‐taking on different aspects of the self as well as on the mind of others (see also Böckler, Herrmann, et al., 2017; Kok & Singer, 2017; Singer et al., 2016).…”