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Dissociation between Decoding and Reasoning about Mental States in Patients with Theory of Mind Reasoning Impairments

University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Reprint requests should be sent to Progress Njomboro, University of Birmingham, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuroscience, Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham B15 2QZ, UK, or via e-mail: P.Njomboro{at}gmail.com.

Theory of mind (ToM) reasoning may involve a multiplicity of processes, including an initial stage, where cues relevant for social processes are detected and decoded, and a mentalizing stage, where the decoded information is used to reason about mental states. Here we report that the processing of lower-order facial cues relevant to social judgments can be relatively spared in patients with impaired ToM reasoning. We discuss the implications for understanding the mechanisms underlying social judgments in brain-lesioned patients.