Mind Reading

Being able to intuit what others think or understand, called Theory of Mind, is fundamental to human social interaction. People with schizophrenia and autism don’t always find this easy. Here, researchers studied schizotypy patients (people who don’t have schizophrenia but have a high risk of suffering a psychotic episode) using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a scanning technique that employs magnetic fields to highlight changes in brain activity. Blue lines on the far right show which brain slices were scanned while red on the bottom shows differences between patient and control groups. While doing Theory of Mind activities patients’ brains showed activity across more areas (yellow) than controls (green) even though the corresponding psychological tests were normal. The results suggest schizotypy patients have some way to compensate for Theory of Mind defects. The finding is intriguing since it is conspicuously absent in people who suffer from schizophrenia.

Written by Julie Webb

Julie Webb

Writer

Julie began her career as a researcher in genetics. In 2000 she won a Wellcome Trust award for her work on a collaborative science drama, staged at the Edinburgh Festival. She now works as a freelance science writer and communicator.

• Lisette van der Meer
• University of Groningen
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Attribution license
• PLoS One. 8(7): e67774.