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Investigation of Mentalizing and Visuospatial Perspective Taking for Self and Other in Asperger Syndrome

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Abstract

Mentalizing refers to making inferences about other people’s mental states, whereas visuospatial perspective taking refers to inferring other people’s viewpoints. Both abilities seem vital for social functioning; yet, their exact relationship is unclear. We directly compared mentalizing and visuospatial perspective taking in nineteen adults with Asperger syndrome (AS) and fifteen control participants with the same stimulus material. Stimuli depicted virtual characters surrounded by two different objects. Virtual characters expressed a preference for one of the objects indicated by facial expression, gestures or head/body orientation. Compared to controls, participants with AS showed significantly increased reaction times and decreased accuracy for mentalizing (i.e., when inferring the virtual character’s preference from the character’s nonverbal bodily cues). By contrast, there were no significant group differences in perspective taking (i.e., by mental own-body transformations). These findings demonstrate, first, specific deficits in AS when mental states have to be inferred from nonverbal social cues. Second, visuospatial perspective taking may not necessarily be related to social impairments occurring in autism spectrum disorders.

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Notes

  1. EHI is missing in five control participants.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Astrid Gawronski, Alexandra Georgescu and Silvia Linnartz for help with neuropsychological assessment. Oliver Döhrmann and Elisa May Matos are gratefully acknowledged for help with stimulus generation, and Andrew Sharott for comments on the manuscript. The project was supported by the German Volkswagen Foundation (N.D., N.S., K.V.) and by the German Ministry of Research and Education (K.V.).

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  1. Bettina H. Bewernick

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Straße 25, 53105, Bonn, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne, Kerpener Str. 62, 50294, Koeln, Germany

    Nicole David, Carolin Aumann, Bettina H. Bewernick, Natacha S. Santos, Fritz-G. Lehnhardt & Kai Vogeley

  2. Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany

    Nicole David

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Correspondence to Nicole David.

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David, N., Aumann, C., Bewernick, B.H. et al. Investigation of Mentalizing and Visuospatial Perspective Taking for Self and Other in Asperger Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 40, 290–299 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0867-4

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