Theory of mind in children with autism

The concept of theory of mind refers to the ability to predict and explain feelings, thoughts, ideas and intentions of self and others. Patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show a deficient development of ToM. Specifically, individuals with ASD fail to understand not only that others have minds, but also that other minds have different thoughts, and that behaviour is determined by mental states.Individuals with ASD have marked difficulties inferring their own and other person's mental states, what has been referred to as ToM. It has also been claimed that persons with ASD in part fail to respond appropriately to the emotional experiences of others described autistic disorders as “empathy disorders” These results show that although children with ASD can learn a simple discrimination between two identities, adaptive face-coding mechanisms are severely compromised, offering a new explanation for previously reported face-perception difficulties and possibly for some of the core social deficits in ASD. The authors propose that the prefrontal cortex is involved in ToM. Additionally, they propose that internal simulation mechanisms, such as the mirror neuron system, are necessary for normal development of recognition, imitation, theory of mind, empathy, and language. Additionally, the authors suggest that dysfunctional simulation mechanisms may underlie the social and communicative deficits seen in individuals with autism spectrum disorders.