Science：克服Asperger 综合症的“思维盲区”
据7月17日的《科学》杂志报道说，患有Asperger 综合症的人可能与患有其它自闭症疾病者一样存在有“思维盲区”，但他们发展出了一种应对这种缺陷的权宜方法。 患有自闭症疾病者被发现很难自动地将精神状态归属自我或其他人，这使得他们的社交功能受到严重的损害。 与其他的自闭症患者不同，具有Asperger 综合症的人在当他们被要求用言语来预测另外一个人的错误信念时会有很好的表现（例如，当一位演员因为没有看见而在一个盒子中搜寻一只球，即使该球已经被移往另外一个盒子。）。 但在一个对相同场景所作的非言语测试中，Atsushi Senju及其同僚显示，患有Asperger 综合症的人倾向于先看一下内部有球的盒子，而非那只由演员选错的盒子。 他们眼睛的泄露实情的动作可能提示，那些患有Asperger 综合症的人不会自动地将精神状态归属他人，但当他们被明确要求这样做的时候，他们能够计算并推测其他人的精神状态。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1176170
Mindblind Eyes: An Absence of Spontaneous Theory of Mind in Asperger Syndrome
Atsushi Senju 1*, Victoria Southgate 1, Sarah White 2, Uta Frith 3
1 Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
2 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
3 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.; CFIN Aarhus University.
Adults with Asperger syndrome can understand mental states such as desires and beliefs (mentalizing) when explicitly prompted to do so, despite having impairments in social communication. We directly tested the hypothesis that such individuals nevertheless fail to mentalize spontaneously. To this end, we used an eye tracking task that has revealed the spontaneous ability to mentalize in typically developing infants. We showed that, like infants, neurotypical adults’ (N = 17) eye movements anticipated an actor’s behavior on the basis of her false belief. This was not the case for individuals with Asperger syndrome (N = 19). Thus, these individuals do not attribute mental states spontaneously, but may be able to do so in explicit tasks through compensatory learning.
