PMID- 19553210
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20090727
LR  - 20211020
IS  - 1091-6490 (Electronic)
IS  - 0027-8424 (Print)
IS  - 0027-8424 (Linking)
VI  - 106
IP  - 27
DP  - 2009 Jul 7
TI  - Growing up blind does not change the neural bases of Theory of Mind.
PG  - 11312-7
LID - 10.1073/pnas.0900010106 [doi]
AB  - Humans reason about the mental states of others; this capacity is called Theory 
      of Mind (ToM). In typically developing adults, ToM is supported by a consistent 
      group of brain regions: the bilateral temporoparietal junction (TPJ), medial 
      prefrontal cortex (MPFC), precuneus (PC), and anterior temporal sulci (aSTS). How 
      experience and intrinsic biological factors interact to produce this adult 
      functional profile is not known. In the current study we investigate the role of 
      visual experience in the development of the ToM network by studying congenitally 
      blind adults. In experiment 1, participants listened to stories and answered 
      true/false questions about them. The stories were either about mental or physical 
      representations of reality (e.g., photographs). In experiment 2, participants 
      listened to stories about people's beliefs based on seeing or hearing; people's 
      bodily sensations (e.g., hunger); and control stories without people. 
      Participants judged whether each story had positive or negative valance. We find 
      that ToM brain regions of sighted and congenitally blind adults are similarly 
      localized and functionally specific. In congenitally blind adults, reasoning 
      about mental states leads to activity in bilateral TPJ, MPFC, PC, and aSTS. These 
      brain regions responded more to passages about beliefs than passages about 
      nonbelief representations or passages about bodily sensations. Reasoning about 
      mental states that are based on seeing is furthermore similar in congenitally 
      blind and sighted individuals. Despite their different developmental experience, 
      congenitally blind adults have a typical ToM network. We conclude that the 
      development of neural mechanisms for ToM depends on innate factors and on 
      experiences represented at an abstract level, amodally.
FAU - Bedny, Marina
AU  - Bedny M
AD  - Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Harvard Medical School, 
      330 Brookline Avenue, KS-158, Boston, MA 02215, USA. mbedny@mit.edu
FAU - Pascual-Leone, Alvaro
AU  - Pascual-Leone A
FAU - Saxe, Rebecca R
AU  - Saxe RR
LA  - eng
GR  - R01 DC006842/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01 MH067008/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States
GR  - K24 RR01887/RR/NCRR NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01 EY012091/EY/NEI NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R01 EY12091/EY/NEI NIH HHS/United States
GR  - R21 EY0116168/EY/NEI NIH HHS/United States
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
DEP - 20090624
PL  - United States
TA  - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
JT  - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JID - 7505876
SB  - IM
EIN - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Feb 19;110(8):3198
MH  - Adult
MH  - Auditory Perception
MH  - Behavior
MH  - Brain Mapping
MH  - Culture
MH  - Female
MH  - Hearing
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Memory
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - *Nervous System Physiological Phenomena
MH  - Organ Specificity
MH  - Prefrontal Cortex/physiology
MH  - *Psychological Theory
MH  - Visual Perception
MH  - Visually Impaired Persons/*psychology
PMC - PMC2708685
COIS- The authors declare no conflict of interest.
EDAT- 2009/06/26 09:00
MHDA- 2009/07/28 09:00
PMCR- 2010/01/07
CRDT- 2009/06/26 09:00
PHST- 2009/06/26 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2009/06/26 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2009/07/28 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2010/01/07 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 0900010106 [pii]
AID - 8463 [pii]
AID - 10.1073/pnas.0900010106 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Jul 7;106(27):11312-7. doi: 
      10.1073/pnas.0900010106. Epub 2009 Jun 24.