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. 2007 Feb;257(1):12-22.
doi: 10.1007/s00406-006-0676-0.

Deficit of social cognition in subjects with surgically treated frontal lobe lesions and in subjects affected by schizophrenia

Monica Mazza  1 , Catello Costagliola, Vittorio Di Michele, Vincenzo Magliani, Rocco Pollice, Alessandro Ricci, Emanuela Di Giovanbattista, Rita Roncone, Massimo Casacchia, Renato Juan Galzio
Affiliations

Deficit of social cognition in subjects with surgically treated frontal lobe lesions and in subjects affected by schizophrenia

Monica Mazza et al. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2007 Feb.

Abstract

The ability of humans to predict and explain other people's behaviour by attributing independent mental states such as desires and beliefs to them, is considered to be due to our ability to construct a "Theory of Mind". Recently, several neuroimaging studies have implicated the medial frontal lobes as playing a critical role in a dedicated "mentalizing" or "Theory of Mind" network in the human brain. In this study we compare the performance of patients with right and left medial prefrontal lobe lesions in theory of mind and in social cognition tasks, with the performance of people with schizophrenia. We report a similar social cognitive profile between patients with prefrontal lobe lesions and schizophrenic subjects in terms of understanding of false beliefs, in understanding social situations and in using tactical strategies. These findings are relevant for the functional anatomy of "Theory of Mind".

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(A) MRI T1 weight (axial view) with gadolinium showing low density abnormalities (meningioma excised, patients L.F.) orbitofrontal cortex on the left side. (B) CT scan image showing low density abnormalities (meningioma excised, patients L.G.) orbitofrontal cortex on right sides
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Performance of study groups (schizophrenics, Right Medial Prefrontal Cortex—RMPFC Lesion Subjects, Left Medial Prefrontal Cortex—LMPFC Lesion Subjects and healthy controls) on First-order False Belief tasks
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Performance of study groups (schizophrenics, Right Medial Prefrontal Cortex—RMPFC Lesion Subjects, Left Medial Prefrontal Cortex—LMPFC Lesion Subjects and healthy controls) on second-order False Belief tasks
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Performances on social situation task in all groups (schizophrenics, Right Medial Prefrontal Cortex—RMPFC Lesion Subjects and Left Medial Prefrontal Cortex—LMPFC Lesion Subjects). The figure reports the scores in correct identification of normative situation and the mean scores of norm violations
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Performance on items of Mach IV Scale in the four groups for strategic thinking
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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