Olga Liverta-Sempio’s research while affiliated with Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore and other places

Research on Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to understand behaviour based on mental state representation, has shifted towards a life span perspective in typical and atypical conditions (dementia). The aim of this study is to investigate the presence and the features of ToM decay in early Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients compared to healthy controls adopting a neurodevelopmental stance. Sixteen AD patients and 16 healthy controls were submitted to an increasing complexity ToM battery, tapping ToM precursors, standard first- and second-order false beliefs and advanced ToM tasks (Eyes Test and strange stories). The results underline a similar pattern of increasing difficulty of the tasks that explore ToM abilities in both the groups. They also confirm the presence of a strong gap in performance between the CTR and the AD groups, especially in the more complex ToM tasks, whereas there is no significant difference between the two groups in the first level of reasoning about beliefs (first-order false belief). The impairment in specific cognitive functions (i.e. memory and executive functions) seems to correlate with the decline in the most complex mentalistic abilities. This study identifies a specific pattern of deterioration in ToM abilities in AD patients, following backwards developmental steps typical of the acquisition of mentalizing abilities, where the most complex ToM levels are impaired, whereas the intermediate and the simplest ones are preserved.

Theory of Mind--ToM, the capacity to understand one's own and other people's mental states and to refer to them to foresee and explain the behaviour--relies upon a circumscribed neural system: the posterior end of the superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), the adjacent temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), the temporal pole (TP), the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the adjacent paracingulate cortex. To our knowledge, the neural basis of mentalizing has not yet been studied in a developmental perspective covering old age, so the aim of this work is to compare the neural basis of a specific aspect of ToM, the mindreading ability through the eyes, in healthy young and old subjects. Two groups of healthy adults (young: 25.2 years; old: 65.2 years) were submitted to an fMRI scanning while performing the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test, which requires the attribution of a mental state to the other person focussing only on the eye-gaze. There was no difference in the behavioural performances between young and old and both groups of subjects activated the pSTS and the TP, thus indicating that old people show no impairment of mentalizing circuits. However, a relevant shifting of the neural circuit implied in each group to solve the task emerged. Old subjects showed a more bilateral activation of frontal areas and a stronger involvement of the linguistic components of the mirror neuron system (i.e. area 44), as compared to young. Both young and old participants activated the non-linguistic components of the mirror neuron system, such as area 6. These findings are discussed taking into account the recent literature dealing with cognitive functions during normal aging.

Le ricerche sulla Teoria della Mente (capacitŕ di riconoscere e attribuire stati mentali a sé e agli altri e di ritenerli causa dei comportamenti) si sono rivolte recentemente anche allo studio della comprensione di stati mentali complessi, sia 129 epistemici che emotivi, che compaiono in etŕ successive alla comprensione della falsa credenza, acquisita intorno ai 4 anni. Gli strumenti di misura della Teoria della Mente adatti a valutare tale capacitŕ, che diventa nello sviluppo sempre piů raffinata e articolata, in bambini di etŕ scolare sono relativamente scarsi, in particolare essi riguardano la comprensione di stati mentali a partire da racconti di situazioni o da stimoli percettivi, quali la visione dell'espressione di occhi o volti. Adottando una definizione di Teoria della Mente, che ne riconosce la multicomponenzialitŕ, viene presentato un nuovo strumento, il "Test Vocale sugli Stati Mentali" (TVSM), per valutare la comprensione di un'ampia gamma di stati epistemici ed emotivi complessi nei bambini di 6-11 anni, a partire unicamente da stimoli vocali (indici non verbali della voce). Vengono presentate le fasi di costruzione, validazione (condotta su 220 bambini) e affidabilitŕ (alfa di Cronbach su un campione di 170 bambini e test-retest su 141 bambini) del test, dimostrando le buone proprietŕ psicometriche del TVSM, che si rivela un valido strumento avanzato di misura della Teoria della Mente. Si č, inoltre, verificato che la prestazione al test č influenzata dall'abilitŕ verbale (PPVT-R) e non dal quoziente intellettivo non verbale (matrici di Raven).

Mental Language and Understanding of Epistemic and Emotional Mental States.- The Mental Verbs in Different Conceptual Domains and in Different Cultures.- The Socialization of Theory of Mind.- Relations Among Theory of Mind, Metacognitive Language, Reading Skills and Story Comprehension In L1 and L2 Learners.- Culture and Mental States.- Mind Over Grammar.- The Silent Understanding of the Mind.- Social and Intrapersonal Theories of Mind.- Discursive Practices and Mentalization Ability in Adults at Work.

This paper suggests both theoretical and empirical reasons for proposing a joint approach to two fast-evolving research areas in developmental psychology: contextual perspective on cognition and learning and studies on children’s theories of mind. We will first review the general assumptions of contextualism and three main contextual approaches; then the more relevant perspectives on theories of mind development will be presented. The two research fields here considered are conceptually organized around two meanings of the concept of other: the “other in interaction” and the “other as culture”, on the basis of which the integration between the two fields will be justified. Finally some directions for future research will be discussed. Dans cet article, des arguments theóriques et empiriques sont avancés pour justifier un rapprochement entre deux courants de recherche actuels en psychologie du développement: l’approche contextuelle de la cognition et de l’apprentissage, d’une part, et l’étude des théories de l’esprit chez l’enfant, d’autre part. On présente d’abord les propositions majeures du contextualisme et trois approches contextuelles importantes; on présente ensuite les perspectives les plus significatives concernant le développement des théories de l’esprit. Les deux champs de recherche considérés sont organisés à partir de deux significations du concept d’autrui: “autrui partenaire interactif” et “autrui comme culture”. C’est sur la base de ces deux significations qu’une intégration des deux champs se justifie. Des directions de recherche futures sont proposées et discutées pour finir.