Multiple Systems in Theory of Mind Development

作为一个物种，人类以先进的社会智能而闻名。我们在自己和他人身上感知到一种由目标、恐惧、希望、信仰、祝福和渴望组成的内在生活。通过分享我们的内心生活，我们以任何其他物种都不可能的方式合作，竞争和交流，即使是最先进的计算机系统也仍然是一个遥远的梦想。虽然分享内心生活的能力是人类本性的核心，但认知心理学家在20世纪80年代才开始研究，神经科学家在20世纪90年代才开始研究。从那时起，在理解我们所谓的“心理理论”能力的认知和大脑基础方面取得了许多进展。心理理论能力可以在典型的4岁儿童中得到实验证明，而年龄较大的自闭症儿童和青少年则无法通过同样的任务。自闭症患者严重的社交和沟通障碍可能源于大脑中心理理论的发展失败。虽然一般发育中的儿童在4岁之前通常不会使用传统任务表现出心理理论能力（年幼的儿童无法完成此类任务），但最近的证据表明，婴儿在非语言任务中表现出这种能力的某些方面。这些看似不一致的发现表明，通常发育中的婴儿可能具有无意识和直觉版本的心理理论能力，以前只有四岁的孩子才有这种能力。如果是这样的话，典型的社会发展可能取决于一种自然的心理理论“本能”的展开，这种本能首先在大脑中的直觉、无意识和非语言水平上表达出来。发育中的大脑系统无法表达这种早期的“本能”可能是自闭症谱系障碍的特征。该项目通过使用各种实验方法来研究这些想法，其中一些方法探索对社会场景的自发，直观（或“隐含”）反应，如眼睛凝视和注视行为，以及传统的，更深思熟虑（或“明确”）的措施，如回答类似场景的口头问题。神经学上典型的儿童将在几个年龄组中进行研究，从婴儿到年龄较大的学龄前儿童，以及自闭症儿童。通过多人群、多方法的方法，该项目将揭示多个心理理论系统如何在大脑系统的发展中相互作用，以及无意识认知如何逐渐与有意识的语言知识联系起来。该项目将研究与教学结合起来，并为更广泛的社区服务。博士后，研究生和本科生，包括少数民族和来自发展中国家的个人，每年都充分参与。研究结果不仅通过学术出版物和会议传播，而且还通过公开讲座和包括互联网在内的新旧媒体传播。该项目将有助于揭示人类社会性的深层根源，并通过揭示它是如何发展的，将丰富对人类文化基础、教育和法律能力、知识的社会传播、儿童和成人的直觉社会感以及自闭症谱系障碍的性质的理解。

As a species, human beings are distinguished by an advanced social intelligence. We perceive in ourselves and in others an inner life of goals, fears, hopes, beliefs, imaginings, and longings. By sharing our inner lives, we cooperate, compete, and communicate in ways that are impossible for any other species and that remain a distant dream for even the most advanced computer systems. Although central to human nature, the ability to share our inner lives only began to be studied by cognitive psychologists in the 1980's and by neuroscientists in the 1990's. Many advances have been made since then in understanding the cognitive and brain bases of what is called our "theory of mind" ability. Theory-of-mind abilities can be experimentally demonstrated in typically developing 4-year-old children, while older and otherwise capable children and adolescents with autism are unable to pass the same tasks. The severe social and communicative impairments in autism may stem from a failure of theory of mind to develop in the brain. Although typically developing children do not generally demonstrate theory-of-mind abilities using traditional tasks until age four (with younger children failing such tasks), recent evidence demonstrates that infants show some aspects of this ability when measured with nonverbal tasks. These seemingly discrepant findings suggest that typically developing babies may have an unconscious and intuitive version of theory-of-mind abilities previously associated only with four-year-olds. If so, typical social development may depend upon the unfolding of a natural theory-of-mind 'instinct' that is expressed first at an intuitive, unconscious, and non-verbal level in the brain. Failure of developing brain systems to express this early 'instinct' may characterize autistic spectrum disorders. This project investigates these ideas by using a variety of experimental methods some of which probe spontaneous, intuitive (or "implicit") responses to social scenarios such as eye-gaze and looking behaviors, as well as traditional, more deliberative (or "explicit") measures such as answers to verbal questions about similar scenarios. Neurologically typical children will be studied in several age groups, from infants to older preschoolers, as well as children with autism. Through a multi-population, multi-method approach the project will reveal how multiple theory-of-mind systems interact in developing brain systems and how unconscious cognition gradually comes to connect with conscious verbal knowledge.The project integrates research with teaching and service to the broader community. Post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students, including minorities and individuals from developing nations, are fully involved each year. Findings are disseminated not only through scholarly publications and meetings, but also through public lectures and through old and new media, including the internet. The project will help uncover the deep roots of human sociality and, by revealing how it develops, will enrich understanding of the foundations of human culture, the capacity for education and law, the social transmission of knowledge, children's and adults' intuitive social sense, and the nature of autistic spectrum disorders.