Elsevier

Neuropsychologia

Volume 38, Issue 1, January 2000, Pages 11-21
Neuropsychologia

Reading the mind in cartoons and stories: an fMRI study of ‘theory of mind’ in verbal and nonverbal tasks

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(99)00053-6Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous functional imaging studies have explored the brain regions activated by tasks requiring ‘theory of mind’—the attribution of mental states. Tasks used have been primarily verbal, and it has been unclear to what extent different results have reflected different tasks, scanning techniques, or genuinely distinct regions of activation. Here we report results from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study (fMRI) involving two rather different tasks both designed to tap theory of mind. Brain activation during the theory of mind condition of a story task and a cartoon task showed considerable overlap, specifically in the medial prefrontal cortex (paracingulate cortex). These results are discussed in relation to the cognitive mechanisms underpinning our everyday ability to ‘mind-read’.

Introduction

Recent interest in the evolution, development, and breakdown of social cognition (see, for example, chapters in Carruthers and Smith, [6]) has been reflected in a number of functional imaging studies of this ability. ‘Theory of mind’, the ability to attribute independent mental states to self and others in order to explain and predict behaviour, has been suggested to arise from a dedicated, domain-specific, and possibly modular cognitive mechanism [12], [24]. This proposal gains particular support from studies of autism, a biologically-based developmental disorder which appears to be characterised by a selective impairment in theory of mind [19]. Interest in the brain basis of normal theory of mind, is fired by the hope of better understanding the neural systems which are abnormal in people with autism, most of whom are unable to ‘mind-read’.

To date, there have been three published reports of functional brain imaging studies of ‘theory of mind’. Baron-Cohen et al. [2] used single photon emission computerised tomography (SPECT) and a regions of interest approach to isolate brain areas activated during recognition of mental state terms in a word list. They found that their normal adult volunteers showed increased cerebral blood flow during the mental state recognition task in the right orbito-frontal cortex relative to the left frontal-polar region. Goel et al. [15] used PET to scan adults engaged in a complex task in which subjects had to model the knowledge and inference of another mind concerning the function of unfamiliar and familiar objects. They found widespread activation associated with this task, including activation of left medial frontal lobe and left temporal lobe. Fletcher et al. [10] also used PET, and scanned volunteers asked to read and answer questions about stories. Comparison of activation during ‘theory of mind’ stories (requiring mental state attribution) vs control ‘physical’ stores revealed task-specific activation in the left medial prefrontal gyrus, as well as increased activation of the posterior cingulate cortex. Using the same technique with individuals with a form of autism (Asperger Syndrome), Happé et al. [20] found similar patterns of activation in all regions except the medial frontal gyrus which had been linked to theory of mind performance in the normal group.

The main aims of the current study were to investigate the neural correlates underlying theory of mind by exploiting the superior spatial resolution of fMRI compared to PET and to examine anatomical convergence between theory of mind tasks presented in different modalities. The story comprehension task used by Fletcher et al. [10] was modified for compatibility with fMRI to examine theory of mind in the verbal domain, while captionless cartoons provided a visual equivalent. Previous behavioural studies have used both stories [14], [17], [18] and visual jokes [7], [18] to investigate theory of mind impairments in adults and children and found these tasks to be good markers of mentalising abilities. We hypothesised that activation in medial prefrontal cortex would be associated with the attribution of mental states independent of modality. Our final aim was to identify any modality specific regions for theory of mind in the verbal and visual domains.

Section snippets

Subjects

Six right-handed volunteers with no neurological or psychiatric history participated in this study. Of these, five were male and one female, with a mean age of 30 yr (range 23–36 yr). This study was approved by the Institute of Neurology Ethics Committee. Informed written consent was obtained from all subjects prior to scanning.

Tasks

All stimuli were displayed on a monitor and presented to the subject via a 45° angled mirror positioned above the head coil; this mirror was adjusted to be within the

Theory of mind stories vs non-theory of mind stories

Significant activations were seen in the medial prefrontal cortex, the temporal poles bilaterally and the temporo-parietal junctions bilaterally (exact coordinates are given in Table 1). All these regions activated in the comparison of ToMS vs control and, with the exception of the medial prefrontal cortex, in Non-ToMS vs control. No significant activations were seen in the reverse contrast; Non-ToMS activation subtracting ToMS activation.

Theory of mind cartoons vs non-theory of mind cartoons

Significant activations were seen in the medial

Discussion

Our study sought to clarify further the functional anatomy of ‘theory of mind’ using fMRI. We attempted to examine anatomical convergence between ‘theory of mind’ tasks in two domains, verbal and visual, and identify modality specific regions for ‘theory of mind’ in these domains. The results of this experiment corroborate the evidence of the previous study by Fletcher et al. [10] and also a different study by Goel et al. [15], suggesting that the ability to mentalise is mediated by the medial

Conclusions

We have reported a study of the functional anatomy of theory of mind, using tasks in visual and verbal modalities. Story and cartoon tasks requiring mental state attribution engaged specific networks of cortical regions, and showed common areas of increased activation in the medial prefrontal gyrus and the temporo-parietal junctions bilaterally. An area of medial prefrontal cortex (the paracingulate cortex) was the only region uniquely activated by theory of mind tasks, and not activated above

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