Parkinsonian patients with deficits in the dysexecutive spectrum are impaired on
theory of mind tasks
#MMPMID23242360
Costa A
; Peppe A
; Martini M
; Coletta K
; Oliveri M
; Caltagirone C
; Carlesimo GA
Behav Neurol
2013[Jan]; 27
(4
): 523-33
PMID23242360
show ga
Understanding the mental states of others entails a number of cognitive processes
known as Theory of Mind (ToM). A relationship between ToM deficits and executive
disorders has been hypothesized in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). The
present study was aimed at investigating the effect of dysexecutive deficits on
ToM abilities in PD patients without dementia. Participants included 30 PD
patients and 30 healthy subjects (HC). PD patients were divided into two groups
according to their executive test performance: patients with poor (dysexecutive
group; n=15) and normal (executively unimpaired group; n=15) performance. All
participants were administered faux pas recognition written stories. The
dysexecutive PD patients performed less accurately than both HC and executively
unimpaired PD individuals on all faux pas story questions (p< 0.05); the
executively unimpaired PD group performed as accurately as the HC group on the
ToM tasks. Results of the study clearly demonstrate that PD is not tout court
associated with ToM impairments and that these may occur in PD patients as a
function of the degree of their executive impairment. Our findings also
indirectly confirm previous data on the role of the prefrontal regions in
mediating ToM capacities.
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