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Abstract:
Specific goals: We report a patient, BM, with early left
amygdala damage. The first aim was to investigate to what extent BM
showed impairment in theory of mind. The second aim was to
determine the degree to which BM's theory of mind impairment was
independent of executive functioning. Methods: BM was given ten
tests of his theory of mind ability, assessing false belief
understanding, mental state understanding in the comprehension of
cartoons, and understanding of intended meaning in non-literal
utterances. BM was also given sixteen tests of executive
functioning, assessing his ability to inhibit dominant responses,
create and maintain goal-related behaviours, and temporally
sequence behaviour. Results: BM performed consistently poorly on
the ten theory of mind tasks. In contrast, his performance on all
executive functions tests was normal. Conclusions: This is the
first time that a dissociation between theory of mind and executive
functions has been reported in the same individual. The findings
suggest that theory of mind is not simply a function of more
general executive functions, and support the hypothesis that the
amygdala plays a role in the development of the circuitry mediating
theory of mind.
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