University:
Western Sydney University
Course:
MEDI 2003 | Clinical Sciences 2
Academic year:

2024
Views:

85

Pages:

2
Author:

Mariam A.

Theory of mind        The ability to understand and predict the behaviour of other people by making inferences about their mental states, their intentions, feelings, expectations, beliefs or knowledge, and to cognitively represent one’s own mental states. Evolved in hominids in response to the increasing complexity of social interactions, representing a powerful cognitive tool to determine whether or not someone is willing to cooperate and reciprocate, or tends to intentionally deceive and defect at the expense of others. Dysfunction is involved in a variety of neuropsychiatric disorders, including autism and schizophrenia. Theory of mind recruits several cortical midline structures, including: o Medial prefrontal cortex. o Anterior cingulate. o Precuneus. Lateral areas are also recruited: o Middle temporal lobes. o Temporoparietal junction. o Superior temporal sulcus. o Temporal poles. The area extending from the anterior cingulate cortex to the anterior frontal pole, particularly the paracingulate cortex, is believed to be engaged in self-reflection and in making inferences about another person’s thoughts. Measuring theory of mind: o Subjects underwent fMRI, and were shown cartoon images depicting social situations involving either cooperation, deception or a combination of both (two characters cooperated to deceive a third). o Brain activation in frontal, temporoparietal and temporal regions. o Both deception and cooperation activated bilateral temporoparietal junction, parietal and cingulate regions. o Deception alone additionally recruited orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal regions. o Results indicate an important role for prefrontal cortex in processing a mismatch between a character’s intention and another’s expectations, as required in complex social interactions. Conclusions  The frontal lobes are involved in many higher-order cognitive processes.        They have extensive and diverse connections to other regions of the brain in order to have access to information from sensory and motor systems and memory. The dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices receive visual, auditory and somatosensory information from the occipital, temporal and parietal cortices. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has connections with many motor system structures and may be the primary region by which the prefrontal cortex exerts control over behaviour, via the premotor cortex. The orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex is more closely associated with medial temporal limbic structures critical for long-term memory and “internal” information, such as affect and motivation. Executive functions are largely subserved by the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is involved in goal-directed behaviours, and is engaged when we deceive. Damage to the prefrontal cortex results in the “dysexecutive syndrome” in which patients become stimulus-bound, unable to ignore irrelevant stimuli and the actions they trigger.