Deconstructing and reconstructing theory of mind

Abstract

Usage of the term 'theory of mind' (ToM) has exploded across fields ranging from developmental psychology to social neuroscience and psychiatry research. However, its meaning is often vague and inconsistent, its biological bases are a subject of debate, and the methods used to study it are highly heterogeneous. Most crucially, its original definition does not permit easy downward translation to more basic processes such as those studied by behavioral neuroscience, leaving the interpretation of neuroimaging results opaque. We argue for a reformulation of ToM through a systematic two-stage approach, beginning with a deconstruction of the construct into a comprehensive set of basic component processes, followed by a complementary reconstruction from which a scientifically tractable concept of ToM can be recovered.

Figure 1

Articles referencing Theory-of-Mind have increased markedly in recent years. Estimates are based on a per annum Google Scholar search (scholar.google.com) for articles that use the exact phrase “Theory of Mind”.

Figure 2

Deconstructing the ToM Network. Data is adapted from meta-analytic results reported in [29], which included 73 neuroimaging studies that used one of the six distinct task groups listed in Box 1 and are rendered on a canonical brain in Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) space. (a) Results of the meta-analysis when pooling data from all six distinct task groups. (b) Sum of results from six independent meta-analyses conducted for each task group. The color map indexes the number of the tasks that reliably produce activation at a given voxel.

Figure 3

An illustrative example of the reformulation of ToM by deconstruction into a comprehensive set of basic component processes on the one hand; and a complementary reconstruction on the other hand, with the aim to construct a richer and scientifically tractable concept of ToM.