Theory of mind is not theory of emotion: A cautionary note on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test.

ABSTRACT: The ability to represent mental states (theory of mind [ToM]) is crucial in understanding individual differences in social ability and social impairments evident in conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) is a popular measure of ToM ability, validated in part by the poor performance of those with ASD. However, the RMET requires recognition of facial emotion, which is impaired in those with alexithymia, which frequently co-occurs with ASD. Thus, it is unclear whether the RMET indexes emotion recognition, associated with alexithymia, or ToM, associated with ASD. We therefore investigated the independent contributions of ASD and alexithymia to performance on the RMET. ASD and alexithymia-matched control participants did not differ on RME

SUBMITTER: Oakley BFM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4976760 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature