People diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have difficulties on Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks involving social situations, such as ‘faux pas’. The objective of this study was to find the modality of presentation (visual, verbal, or mixed) that yields the best understanding of a ‘faux pas’, and the possible influence of other variables, including intelligence (IQ), age, and working memory. Thirty autistic children and 30 neurotypical children, all aged 7 to 12 years old and comparable in age and IQ, participated in this study. They were asked to resolve nine ‘faux pas’ stories (three per modality). Significant between-groups differences were found in the visual (t = 2.99, p = .004) and verbal modalities (t = 2.64, p = .011), such that the neurotypical (NT) group had higher scores than the ASD group. The ASD group’s comprehension was better via the mixed modality than the verbal modality (t = 2.48, p = .019). In addition, working memory had a bigger impact on Faux Pas understanding in cases of autism than in typical development (R2 explained between .19 and .28 of variance in Faux Pas test outcomes), and could therefore explain some of the difficulties previously reported in this area. Future research should include a measure of working memory and a control among the stimuli presented to test for group differences in faux pas understanding.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system leading to physical and cognitive disability. The impact of the disease on social cognition has only come to light quite recently. The aim of this study was to evaluate the social cognition abilities of MS patients and their links with characteristics of the disease, such as physical disability, cognitive impairment and disease duration.

The performances of a group of 64 MS patients were compared with that of 30 matched healthy individuals in facial emotion recognition and Faux Pas tasks as well as on a battery of standardized neuropsychological tests.

The MS patients performed worse than the control group in the recognition of the expressions of fear and anger and in the interpretation of faux pas. The impairment in social cognition increased with overall disease course. Executive impairment did not correlate with the performance in the social cognition tests.

Our results show that emotional impairment is observed at early stages of the disease in the absence of cognitive dysfunction, even if social cognition abilities worsen with the progression of MS. These data highlight the need to attempt to identify these impairments in clinical practice.

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute independent mental states to self and others to explain and predict behavior. Impairment of ToM is well established in developmental pathologies. In neurological populations, investigation of ToM is still rare but data suggest that ToM impairment could contribute to behavioral and social disturbances. In addition to neurological signs, multiple sclerosis (MS) presents with disorders of cognition and behavior directly related to brain damage. The aim of this study was to assess ToM abilities and recognition of facial emotional expression in adults with MS. We compared 64 patients with relapsing MS and 30 matched healthy controls on three levels of ToM tasks, a facial emotion recognition task, and a neuropsychological assessment. MS patients performed significantly worse than controls in emotion recognition and all ToM tasks (p < .02). These deficits were not correlated with demographic variables or neuropsychological test performance. These findings underscore the importance of assessing ToM and facial recognition in MS, as dysfunction in these areas may impact upon social interaction and, thus, impair quality of life for both patients with MS and their families. (JINS, 2011, 17, 1122–1131)