Theory of Mind in Schizophrenia and Asperger's Syndrome: Relationship with Negative Symptoms

Abstract

These results suggest that clinically stable schizophrenia patients have ToM impairments. Sch-HN group performed comparably poorly as the AS group, while the Sch-LN group was relatively spared. The most profoundly impaired patients with schizophrenia in terms of ToM functioning were represented by those with high negative symptoms (Sch-HN). Similar to AS, as a neurodevelopmental impairment, these patients may not have developed ToM ability, or they may have lost their ToM capacity as a result of a neurodegenerative process during the illness. Supplementary studies using other methods (e.g., neuroimaging, neurophysiology) may highlight the brain regions that are affected differentially in AS and schizophrenia, the relationship of ToM impairments and negative symptoms, and the role of ToM impairments in the neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative hypothesis of schizophrenia.