Effects of social cognitive demand on Theory of Mind in conversations of adults with traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Background A requisite skill for successful conversation is the ability to adjust one’s language according to contextual factors. Aims This study examined one aspect of language use in context – the use of mental state terms, i.e. words that communicate thoughts, beliefs, or feelings– in conversations between adult males with and without traumatic brain injury (TBI) and familiar partners. Methods and Procedures Participants were 5 males in the chronic stage of recovery following severe TBI and 5 male peers matched for age, conversing with friends. Conversational context was manipulated using conversation starters that were designed to induce differing levels of self-disclosure or intimacy, with the expectation that mental state term use would increase when participants talked about more intimate topics. Outcomes and Results Participants in both groups used more mental state terms in more intimate conversations, however adults with TBI did not increase their mental state term use to the same extent as matched peers. Adults with TBI also used a significantly different pattern of mental state term types across intimacy levels as compared to peers. Conclusions and Implications These quantitative and qualitative differences may contribute to social conversation problems of adults with TBI.

Theory of Mind in Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury

“…This type of time-saving treatment is economical and can be used for the intact component of ToM in persons with TBI for the rehabilitation purposes; 2, paying more attention to reaction time in ToM tasks; 3, conversation as a social activity in which ToM skill might play an important role. Since conversation is one type of non-laboratory tasks and requires inferences about beliefs, intentions, and emotions of addressee, it is an ideal task to evaluate ToM in the clinical populations such as TBI (49). Therefore, it is suggested that many studies be conducted by conversational tasks to assess ToM in individuals with TBI besides laboratory tasks of ToM; 4, further studies could be conducted on evaluating functional dif-…”

“…3 thermore, in the task of reading the minds in the eyes, the task was in front of the participants; there was no memorization. Nature of some tasks did not require memory loads and control questions such as conversation-based task (49). In general, to examine ToM skill, particularly in TBI, the tasks are recommended without memory load.…”

Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Mitigation Strategies of Cognitive Deficits in Aging with HIV: Implications for Practice and Research

“…In particular, cognitive efficiency or cognitive health, just like physical health, is often taken for granted until it is compromised. It can be argued that optimal cognitive functioning is needed to help promote biological health (i.e., remembering to take medication [17]), mental health (i.e., being able to exert enough cognitive energy to consciously switch attention from dwelling on negative thoughts to positive thoughts [18]), social competence (i.e., attending to details in conversation [19]), personal control (i.e., decision making such as in finances [20, 21]), and life satisfaction (i.e., remembering and reflecting on personal events and deriving meaning [22–24]). Based on this argument, optimal cognitive functioning is one of the most important competencies needed to help adults with HIV age successfully.…”

Theory of Mind and Language in the Adult: Some Considerations from the Perspective of Speech Therapy

“…This author states that current questions about language development "continue to focus on how babies and young children "break the code" that is, how they manage to make sense of the linguistic sound that surrounds them, and then become competent users of a language". However, today another very fertile area of study is related to the changes that occur in the language and communication of adults [2][3][4].…”