Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274 283

www.elsevier.com/locate/schres

The neuroanatomical basis of affective mentalizing in schizophrenia:

Comparison of patients with schizophrenia and patients with
localized prefrontal lesions
Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory a,b,, Judith Aharon-Peretz b , Yechiel Levkovitz c
a

Department of Psychology and Brain and Behavior Center, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
b
Cognitive Neurology Unit, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
c
Shalvata Mental Health Care Center, Hod Hasharon, Israel

Received 27 June 2006; received in revised form 13 September 2006; accepted 15 September 2006
Available online 19 December 2006

Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia show impaired emotional and social behavior, such as misinterpretation of social situations and lack
of Theory of Mind (ToM). However, the neuroanatomical basis of impaired ToM and its nature in schizophrenia is still
largely unknown. Based on previous findings, the present study suggests that impaired social cognition observed in schizophrenic
patients may be similar to that observed in patients with prefrontal (PFC) damage due to impaired affective ToM abilities, rather
than to a general impairment in ToM. We examined the behavioral and neural mechanisms that underlie the social and
communicative impairments observed in patients with schizophrenia and with PFC damage, by looking at differential patterns of
ToM impairment in these individuals. The performance of 24 patients with schizophrenia was compared to the responses of patients
with localized lesions in the ventromedial (VM) or dorsolateral PFC, patients with non-frontal lesions, and healthy control subjects.
Patients with schizophrenia and those with VM lesions were impaired on affective ToM tasks but not in cognitive ToM
conditions. It was concluded that the pattern of mentalizing impairments in schizophrenia resembled those seen in patients with
lesions of the frontal lobe, particularly with VM damage, providing support for the notion of a disturbance of the fronto-limbic
circuits in schizophrenia.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Social cognition; Theory of mind; Prefrontal cortex

1. Introduction
Impaired social cognition has been observed in
patients with schizophrenia and found to be linked to

Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, University of

Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel. Tel.: +972 4 8240939; fax: +972 4 826315.
E-mail address: sshamay@psy.haifa.ac.il (S.G. Shamay-Tsoory).
0920-9964/$ - see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.schres.2006.09.020

their social functioning and behavior (Penn et al., 1999).

Although deficits in emotional and social behavior in
schizophrenia have been extensively investigated,
the scientific literature shows little agreement as to the
neuroanatomical basis of impaired social cognition in
schizophrenia (Morrison et al., 1988; Mandal et al.,
1998). Recently, attempts to explain the behavioral
disturbances in schizophrenia have emphasized the
breakdown of theory of mind (ToM) processes in

S.G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. / Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274283

275

press) and in individuals with VM damage (ShamayTsoory et al., 2005).

Interestingly, the same cortical regions, involved in
ToM are also known to be impaired in schizophrenia.
Recently, there has been particular interest in the possible
contribution of the PFC to schizophrenic symptomatology (for review: Pantelis et al., 2005). Neuropsychological studies of patients with schizophrenia have
consistently identified deficits of executive function,
traditionally considered sensitive to frontal lobe damage
(Morris et al., 1995). While most studies focused on
dorsolateral prefrontal dysfunction in schizophrenia
(Weinberger et al., 1986), schizophrenic patients also
appear to show deficits in the VM and prefrontal
regions (Convit et al., 2001; Pantelis et al., 2005). However, although abnormal function has been demonstrated
in the PFC, there is limited evidence of anatomical
pathology of this brain area (Shelton et al., 1988).
Taken together, it appears that a dysfunction in the PFC
and particularly the VM may underlie impaired ToM in
schizophrenia. While studies to date have reported impaired ToM and empathy in both schizophrenia (Frith and
Corcoran, 1996) and VM damage (Stone et al., 1998;
Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2005), no previous study has
directly compared these two groups. Therefore, the goal
of the present study was to examine the role of PFC
cortices in impaired ToM in schizophrenia.

these individuals. ToM refers to the ability to

understand and predict the behavior of other people
through the process of making inferences regarding
their mental states: their knowledge, intentions and
beliefs (Premack and Woodruff, 1978). It has been
shown that individuals with schizophrenia perform
poorly on ToM tasks relative to clinical and non-clinical
control groups (Frith and Corcoran, 1996; Sarfati et al.,
1997).
Important corroboration for the idea of impaired ToM
in schizophrenia may arise from studying the neuroanatomical bases of social impairment in individuals
with brain damage. Evidence from patients with cortical
lesions shows that individuals with prefrontal (PFC)
damage show impaired social behavior and functioning,
despite the retention of intact cognitive skills. Patients
with PFC damage may show misinterpretation of social
situations, especially when the damage is located in
the orbitofrontal/ventromedial (VM) PFC region
(Rolls, 1996). This selective deficit might suggest that
a unique neural circuit that involves the PFC subserves
social cognition (Pinkham et al., 2003). Indeed,
evidence from both lesion (Stone et al., 1998; Stuss
et al., 2001; Rowe et al., 2001) and neuroimaging
(Fletcher et al., 1995; Goel et al., 1995; Baron-Cohen
et al., 1994; Gallagher et al., 2000; Calarge et al., 2003;
Grezes et al., 2004; Vollm et al., 2006) studies reported
the contribution of specific prefrontal regions to ToM
abilities.
Operationally, subjects are usually credited with ToM
if they succeed in tasks designed to test their
understanding of beliefs. However, we have recently
found that tasks involving inference regarding cognitive
mental states and tasks that involve inference regarding
affective mental states are differentially impaired in
individuals with schizophrenia (Shamay-Tsoory et al., in

2. Methods
2.1. Subjects
Ethical approval was granted by both hospitals
(Rambam medical center and Shalvata Mental Health
Care Center) Ethics Committees. All subjects signed
informed consent.

Table 1
Demographic details

Gender
Males
Females
Age, mean (SD)
Years of education, mean (SD)
Similarities, mean (SD)
Recognition of emotions, mean %
of correct responses (SD)
Perspective taking scale,
mean (SD)

Schizophrenia
N = 24

VM
N=9

DLC
N=7

MIX
N = 11

NF
N = 16

HC
N = 28

Sig

15
9
32.47 (10.66)
12.90 (3.38)
9.95 (3.00)
85.43 (8.02)

8
1
40.11 (15.55)
13.25 (3.41)
9.55 (1.13)
77.89 (11.69)

6
1
33.57 (7.28)
13.42 (1.81)
11.80 (1.30)
78.17 (8.54)

9
5
34.63 (15.74)
13.00 (2.36)
8.92 (1.49)
81.92 (2.08)

11
4
37.87 (16.28)
13.66 (2.22)
10.75 (1.815)
85.31 (8.79)

15
13
28.35 (7.44)
13.39 (1.13)
11.08 (2.29)
88.18 (11.37)

NS
NS
NS
NS
p = 0.034

1.75 (4.60)

4.00 (6.58)

2.40(3.36)

1.57 (4.43)

5.00 (5.85)

5.9 (3.48)

p = 0.0001

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S.G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. / Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274283

2.1.1. Schizophrenia group

Twenty-four adult (age range, 1860 years) patients
with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia participated in the study (Table 1). Diagnosis was confirmed
by two senior psychiatrists using the Structured Clinical
Interview. Onset ranged between 1 to 21 years. Subjects
were out-patients and day-hospital patients who were
stable on fixed doses of equivalent medications with
or without trihexyphenidyl (Artane 510 mg/day) or
biperiden (Dekinet 24 mg/day). Patients with other
neurological problems or a major physical illness,
alcohol or substance abuse were excluded from the
study.
2.1.2. Brain lesion group
Patients with acquired localized well-defined, brain
lesions of various etiologies, referred for cognitive
assessment to our Cognitive Neurology Unit, were
recruited for participation in the present study. Etiologies included head injury (patients with diffuse axonal
injury were excluded), meningioma, and CVA (range of
time since injury was 8 months to 17 years). Testing
was conducted at least six months post-trauma or
surgery.
A neurologist, blind to the studys hypotheses,
carried out the anatomical classification based on
CTs or MRIs. Lesions were localized with standard
atlases (Damasio and Damasio, 1989) and were further
transcribed to the appropriate slices of the MRIcro
program [Rorden, University of Nottingham] to allow
drawing three-dimensional regions of interest (Fig. 1).
Patients were divided into Prefrontal (PFC, n = 27)
and Non-frontal (NF, n = 16) subgroups, on the basis
of the location of the lesion. The PFC group was further
divided into subgroups according to the prefrontal
sectors of functional significance (Damasio and Damasio, 1989): dorsolateral (DLC = Brodmann areas dorsolateral 8,9 and 44,45,46); ventromedial (VM =
Brodmann areas 6, mesial 8, 9, 10, 24, 32, and orbital
Brodmann areas 10, 11, 12 and 14) and MIX (DLC +
VM). Nineteen patients had lesions confined to a
single sector (DLC = 7, VM = 9), and 11 had a MIXed
lesion.
The volume of lesions ranged from 0.9 cm3 to
85.073 cm3 (mean = 29.23 cm3 SD = 23.30 cm3). One
way ANOVA indicated that the volume of lesions did
not differ among the different lesion groups (F[3,41] =
0.86, NS).
2.1.3. Healthy controls
Twenty-eight aged-matched healthy volunteers (HC)
served as controls. The HC group included women

and men, aged 2158 years, with 1216 years of education. Subjects with a history of alcohol or drug abuse
or previous head trauma were excluded. Two schizophrenic patients and one HC refused to complete all the
tasks.
2.2. Assessment of cognitive and affective ToM:
cognitive and affective mental inference and mentalistic
significance of eye direction
This computerized task (programmed using E-prime)
is based on a task described previously by Baron-Cohen
(1995) and involves the ability to judge mental states
based on verbal and eye gaze cues. The original stimuli
were developed and further divided into three main
conditions: affective cognitive and physical (for description and sample of items see Appendix A).
2.3. Clinical assessment
The patient group was assessed, by a clinical
psychologist, using the Positive and Negative Symptoms
of Schizophrenia (PANSS, Kay et al., 1987).
To obtain an estimate of verbal intellectual functioning, we measured performance on the Similarities
subscale (WAIS-R).
2.3.1. Assessment of perspective taking abilities
Perspective taking abilities were assessed using the
perspective taking subscale taken from the Interpersonal
Reactive Index (IRI) (Davis, 1983). This scale was
chosen based on previous study suggesting that affective
aspects of ToM are related to cognitive empathy and
may be mediated by the orbitofrontal and medial
prefrontal cortex (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2004).
2.3.2. Recognition of basic emotional facial expression
This computerized task was designed to assess the
individual's ability to recognize basic emotions. The test
consists of 24 photographs of facial expressions taken
from Ekman and Friesen (1976). At the bottom of each
picture stimulus, two words were printed; the correct
emotion expressed and a distracter.
3. Results
As Table 1 shows, one-way ANOVA between
groups of subjects indicated that the groups did not
differ in age (F[5,88] = 2.039, NS), education (F[5,88] =
0.225, NS), or estimated overall level of verbal
functioning (F[5,57] =0.906, NS). Significant differences between groups were evident in recognition of

S.G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. / Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274283

277

Fig. 1. Overlap maps of lesions.

basic emotions (F[5,87] = 2.544, p = 0.034) and in the

perspective taking scale (F[5,87] = 6.382, p b 0.001).
Post-hoc analysis (Tukey) did not reveal any significant
differences between groups in recognizing basic

emotions. In the perspective taking scale, the VM

group showed significantly lower scores as compared to
the HC, DLC and NF groups ( p b 0.05). The rest of the
groups did not differ from each other.

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S.G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. / Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274283

3.1. Cognitive and affective mental inference and

mentalistic significance of eye direction
One-way ANOVA was first conducted to examine
the subject's performance in the physical (Phy1 + Phy2)
conditions. This analysis suggested significant differences between groups (F[5,85] = 4.759, p = 0.001).
Post-hoc analysis indicated that in the physical
conditions patients with schizophrenia had significantly lower accuracy scores as compared to the HC group
(p b 0.05).
Since each 1st and 2nd order condition had a
corresponding physical condition serving as a control
condition (Phy1, Phy2), the corresponding physical
condition was used as a covariate in all the
analyses below. We further analyzed performance on
the 1st and 2nd order conditions, using multivariate
ANOVA with the physical condition serving as
covariate (ANCOVA).
3.1.1. First order ToM
A multivariate ANOVA was conducted for the 1st
order conditions, with the physical condition (Phy1)
serving as a covariate, to examine whether the patient
groups and the controls differed significantly from each
other on cognitive (Cog1) and affective (Aff1) response
accuracy. This analysis indicated that accuracy in the
physical condition did not have a significant effect on the
ToM conditions (Aff1 and Cog1) (Hotelling's Trace; F
[2,86] = 0.006, NS) and the difference between the groups
was not significant (Hotelling's Trace; F[10,170] =
1.818, NS).
3.1.2. 2nd order ToM
The same analysis was carried out on the affective
and cognitive ToM 2nd order conditions (Cog2 and
Aff2) and indicated that, although the response accuracy
in the 2nd order physical condition (Phy2) had a
significant effect (Hotelling's Trace; F[2,86] = 4.496,
p = 0.014) on the accuracy in the affective and cognitive
ToM conditions (Cog2 and Aff2), the difference
between the groups was significant (Hotelling's Trace;
F[10,170] = 2.793, p = 0.003). Furthermore, follow-up
tests of between-subjects effects indicated that the
groups differed significantly from each other in the
affective (Aff2) condition (F[5,87] = 3.819, p = 0.004),
but not in the cognitive (Cog2) condition (F[5,87] =
2.140, NS). Pairwise comparisons indicated specifically
that the schizophrenia, the VM and the MIX groups
gave significantly fewer correct responses as compared
to the HC group on the affective ToM condition but not
in the cognitive ToM condition. In addition, the

Fig. 2. The mean scores of the affective (Aff2) and cognitive (Cog2):
the schizophrenia, the VM and MIX groups had significantly lower
accuracy scores as compared to the HC group in the affective ToM
condition but not in the cognitive ToM condition. The schizophrenia
group was also significantly impaired as compared to the NF
groups. * Significantly impaired (lower accuracy) as compared to
the HC.

schizophrenia group was significantly impaired (lower

accuracy) as compared to the NF groups (Fig. 2).
The dissociation between cognitive and affective
ToM was further emphasized by a correlation analysis
which indicated significant correlation between the
affective ToM condition and the perspective taking scale
(r = 0.204, p = 0.036) and recognition of facial expressions (r = 0.279, p = 0.009). No significant correlations
were evident between the cognitive ToM condition and
the perspective taking scale and recognition of facial
expression.
3.1.2.1. The contribution of brain asymmetry. To
examine the effect of the lateralization of brain lesions,
we reanalyzed the above mentioned significant effects in
the affective and cognitive ToM 2nd order conditions
(Cog2 and Aff2) with the physical condition (Phy2) as a
covariate, using a subdivision of the patient groups to
unilateral lesions (Lt PFC, Rt PFC, Lt NF, Rt NF).
Results indicated that, although the response accuracy
in the physical condition had a significant effect
(Hotelling's Trace; F[2,85] = 3.893, p b 0.0001) on the
accuracy in the affective and cognitive conditions, the
difference between the groups was significant (Hotelling's Trace; F[12,168] = 2.337, p = 0.007). Furthermore,
follow-up tests of between-subjects effects indicated
that the groups differed significantly from each other
in the affective (Aff2) condition (F[6,86] = 4.502,
p = 0.001), but not in the cognitive (Cog2) condition
(F[6,86] = 1.261, NS). Pairwise comparisons indicated
specifically that the schizophrenia, and the Lt PFC
groups gave significantly fewer correct responses as
compared to the HC and the Lt NF group on the

S.G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. / Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274283

affective ToM condition but not in the cognitive ToM

condition.
To rule out the possibility that impaired ToM could
be related to demographic variables such as age, years of
education and gender of subjects, the data were reanalyzed with these variable serving as covariates.
These analyses (Multivariate ANOVA of Cog2 and
Aff2) indicated that the significance remained after
covarying for age (F[10,170] = 3.602, p b 0.0001], years
of education (F[10,166] = 3.583, p b 0.0001] and gender
(F[10,166] = 3.092, p = 0.002].
3.2. Relation between affective ToM and schizophrenic
symptomatology
No significant correlation was found between
symptoms and performance on the ToM task. The
schizophrenia group was further divided into two
groups according to their rating on the PANSS scale
(Kay et al., 1987) (up to 5 point difference between the
positive and negative scales): predominantly negative
symptoms (n = 15) and predominantly positive symptoms (n = 6). The rest of the patients had mixed positive
and negative symptoms.
We reanalyzed the above mentioned significant
effects in the affective and cognitive ToM 2nd order
conditions with the physical condition as a covariate.
Results indicated that although the response accuracy
in the 2nd order physical condition had a significant
effect (Hotelling's Trace; F[2,83] = 7.105, p b 0.001)
on accuracy in the affective and cognitive conditions,
the difference between the groups was significant (Hotelling's Trace; F[12,164] = 2.529, p = 0.004).
Tests of between-subjects effects indicated that the
groups differed significantly from each other in
the affective condition (F[6,84] = 3.592, p = 0.003), but
not in the cognitive condition (F[6,84] = 1.612, NS).
Pairwise comparisons indicated specifically that the
predominantly negative schizophrenia symptoms group,
the VM and the MIX groups gave significantly
fewer correct responses as compared to the HC
group on the affective ToM condition but not in
the cognitive ToM condition. The positive symptoms
group, the NF and the DLC groups did not differ from
the HC.
4. Discussion
In the present study, evaluation of cognitive and
affective ToM abilities indicated that patients with
schizophrenia exhibited a similar pattern of impaired
performance as patients with VM prefrontal damage.

279

The task used in the present study was developed

to directly examine affective and cognitive mentalizing
abilities based on verbal and non-verbal information. Patients with schizophrenia and patients with
VM damage were significantly less accurate in their
response to affective 2nd order ToM conditions
compared to controls. No significant differences between groups were evident in the cognitive ToM
conditions, however. Furthermore, when patients with
schizophrenia were divided into patients with either
predominantly positive or negative symptoms, only
patients with negative symptoms and patients with VM
damage were significantly less accurate in their response to affective ToM conditions. Although the small
number of patients may limit the conclusions that can
be drawn from these results, it still may imply that
patients with negative symptoms and patients with VM
damage demonstrate a comparable trend of impairment
in affective aspects of ToM. Even though all participants had better performance in the affective ToM
conditions, the schizophrenic and the VM patients
appeared to show impaired performance in these
conditions. This latter finding is consistent with the
suggestion that the orbital frontal cortex facilitates
automatic aspects of social cognition (Moll et al.,
2003).
These results imply that ToM impairments in
schizophrenia resemble those seen in patients with
lesions of the VM PFC, suggesting further support for
the notion of a disturbance of frontolimbic circuits in
schizophrenia. Lesions in the VM cortex result in
a syndrome characterized by disinhibition, lack of tact
(Eslinger and Damasio, 1985), impaired empathy
(Eslinger, 1998). Shurman, Horan and Nuechterlein
(2005) recently reported significant correlation between
impaired performance on the Iowa Gambling Task
(sensitive to VM function) and severity of negative
symptoms. In agreement with the above, Ritter, MeadorWoodruff and Dalack (2004) examined regional differences in frontal cortical functioning among patients with
schizophrenia, using the Gambling Task and tasks that
assess dorsolateral PFC, such as the Wisconsin Card
Sorting Test (WCST). In this study, patients with
schizophrenia performed worse on the gambling task
while showing intact performance on the WCST. The
relation between impaired social cognition in schizophrenia and VM dysfunction was also reported in
several imaging studies (Russell et al., 2000; Brunet
et al., 2003). The role of the VM in schizophrenia
was further documented in neuroimaging studies which
consistently find anatomic alterations in the medial and
orbitofrontal cortex in individuals with schizophrenia

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S.G. Shamay-Tsoory et al. / Schizophrenia Research 90 (2007) 274283

(Convit et al., 2001; Paillere-Martinot et al., 2001; Volz

et al., 2001).
Taken together, these studies imply that VM
pathology may be observed in schizophrenia. Our
neuropsychological data add to these reports, suggesting
that VM dysfunction may account for the lack of
affective ToM in these patients. Indeed, while several
studies have explained hypofrontality in schizophrenia
in terms of dysfunction of frontalhippocampal circuits
(Friston, 1992), others have highlighted the role of the
frontalstriatalthalamic circuitry (Frith and Done,
1988; Buchsbaum et al., 1992). Dysfunction of the
latter circuits may involve dysfunction on orbital,
medial, and dorsolateral prefrontal regions (Alexander
et al., 1986).
Furthermore, when brain asymmetry was examined,
patients with schizophrenia showed in addition a pattern
of performance that resembled that of patients with left
PFC damage. These results are consistent with previous
studies showing an asymmetrical attentional deficit in
schizophrenia and left hemispheric dysfunction (Carter
et al., 1996). Finally, the dissociation between cognitive
and affective ToM was also emphasized by a correlation
analysis which indicated significant correlation between
the affective ToM condition and the perspective taking scale and recognition of facial expressions. A similar
distinction between cognitive and affective processing
is reported in studies of empathic abilities. However, it
has been previously suggested in brain lesion studies
that affective aspects of ToM are related to cognitive
empathy and may be mediated by the orbitofrontal
cortex (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2003). On the other hand,
affective aspects of empathy which involves
an automatic fellow feeling, may be related to
subcortical mechanisms such as the amygdala. This
finding is in line with Vollm and colleagues who found
evidence for partially differential mechanisms in
processing cognitive (ToM) and affective (empathy)
tasks. Affective empathy in their study involved recruitment of some additional regions relevant for emotional processing, i.e., the amygdala (Vollm et al., 2006).
However, it is important to note that these models
and assertions regarding neural bases of ToM deficits in
schizophrenia must be accepted with caution. Schizophrenia stands for a wide variety of conditions that may
differ in terms of behavior and neural correlates. Since
the symptomatic profile may alter during the course of
the disease in certain patients, so can their social
behavior. Nonetheless, converging lesion studies with
psychiatric clinical findings may further delineate our
comprehension of the role of specific PFC cortices in
schizophrenia.

Acknowledgements
This study was supported by a research grant from the
Israeli National Institute of Psychobiology. We are thankful
for the NARSAD's Young Investigator Award Program.
Appendix A. ToM task: cognitive and affective
mental inference and mentalistic significance of eye
direction: description of the task and sample of items
The task consists of 64 trials, each showing a cartoon
outline of a face (named Yoni) and four colored pictures of
objects belonging to a single category (e.g., fruits, chairs)
or faces, one in each corner of the computer screen. The
subject's task is to point to the correct answer (the image to
which Yoni is referring), based on a sentence that appears
at the top of the screen and available cues, such as Yoni's
eye gaze, Yoni's facial expression, or the face's (the one to
which Yoni is referring) eye gaze and facial expression (see
sample of items below). Subjects are instructed to point at
the correct picture using the computer mouse as fast as they
can. There are three main conditions: cognitive (24
trials), affective (24 trials) and physical (16 trials),
each requiring either a 1st (32 trials) or a 2nd (32 trials)
order inference. The cognitive and affective conditions
involve mental inferences, while the physical condition
requires a choice based on a physical attribute of the
character (thus serving as a control condition, to ensure that
the subject understands the task). In the 1st order physical
condition the subject is asked to refer to Yoni's location
(Yoni is near____), while in the 2nd order condition the
subject is asked to point to the same object Yoni and the
character have (Yoni has the same fruit as ____has). In
the cognitive conditions, both Yoni's facial expression and
the verbal cue are neutral, while in the affective conditions,
both cues provide affective conditions (For example: Yoni
is thinking of ___ [Cog1 condition] vs. Yoni loves___
[Aff1 condition]). In the 2nd order condition (Cog2, Aff2,
Phy2), the four stimuli consist of face images and the
choice of the correct response requires understanding of
the interaction between each of these figures and Yoni's
mental state. Thus, while the Cog2 requires understanding
beliefs about others' beliefs and desires (Yoni is thinking of
the toy that _______wants), the Aff2 involves understanding of one's emotions in regard to the others'
emotions (Yoni loves the toy that _______loves).
In 70% of the 2nd trials, Yoni's eye gaze is directed at
one of the four face stimuli (the correct answer) and, in
30% of the trials, Yoni's gaze is directed straight ahead.
When Yoni's gaze is directed straight ahead, the
decision must be based on the verbal cue and the face's
gaze. Subject's performance was rated for accuracy.

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