Theory Of Mind And Executive Function In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Objective: This study focused on theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF) in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and discussed the possibility of training autistic children's theory of mind. The aims of the present study were as follows: (1) To investigate the characteristics of theory of mind in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and to test the theory of mind deficit hypothesis; (2) To investigate the characteristics of executive function in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and to examine executive dysfunction hypothesis; (3) To explore the relationship between ToM and EF, and analyse whether ToM is domain-general or domain-special development. (4) To discuss the possibility of training autistic children's theory of mind.Methods: In this study, 20 children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), 26 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) controls and 31 typical development (TD) subjects were compared on two batteries of neuropsychological tests-ToM tests, including the "appearance-reality distinction" task, the "unexpected-location" task and the "unexpected-content" task, and EF tasks, including the "visuo-spatial working memory task", "stroop task" and the "Wisconsin Card Sorting Test". Relations between ToM and EF were also examined. Meanwhile, a 9-week training ToM curriculum was for 3 autistic children aged 3-7.Results: 1. Non-verbal IQ controlled by partial correlation, the correlations between ToM tasks were significant (r=.436～.697, p＜.001). 2.χ~2 test showed that children with ASD performed significantly worse than ADHD and normal group in the appearance-reality distinction task(AR) (χ~2 1-2(1)=8.846, p＜.01;χ~2 1-3(1)=25.706, p＜.01), the false belief question(FB) in the unexpected location task(χ~2 1-2(1)=19.206, p＜.01;χ~2 1-3(1)=31.432, p＜.01), FB about oneself (χ~2 1-2(1)=8.248, p＜.01;χ~2 1-3(1)=15.229, p＜.01) and FB about others (χ~2 1-2(1)=12.018, p＜.01;χ~2 1-3(1)=25.397, p＜.01) in the unexpected content task; however, ADHD and TD have no significant differences(χ~2 2-3(1)=5.780, p＞.05;χ~2 2-3(1)=2.488, p＞.05;χ~2 2-3(1)= 1.414, p＞.05;χ~2 2-3(1)=3.680, p＞.05). 3. Partial correlation analysis revealed that the correlations between EF tasks were significant (r=-.825～.980, p＜.001), except Visuospatial Working-memory and TN, E% in WCST. 4. Analysis of covariance showed that no significant difference was seen in EF tasks. 5. ASD with Non-verbal IQ below 85 showed significant EF impairments compared to ASD with Non-verbal IQ above 115 (p＜.05). 6. Non-verbal IQ controlled by partial correlation, the correlations between AR, FB in the unexpected location task, FB about others in the unexpected content task and Stroop3 were significant (r=.321-.384, p＜.05). FB about oneself and CA in WCST had positive correlation (r=.255, p＜.05), and PRS in WCST had negative correlation (r=-.146, p＜.05). FB about others and PRS (r=-.305, p＜.05), PE% (r=-.267, p＜.05) had negative correlation. No significant correlations were seen among other index. 7. By training, the ability of discriminating appearance-reality and understanding false belief in 3 children with ASD was improved.Conclusions: 1. Children with ASD performed more poorly than ADHD and TD on ToM tasks, and had theory of mind deficits. 2. ToM significantly was correlated with EF; however, different ToM components were correlated with EF differently. 3. ToM in ASD can be improved by training.