Sharedness and privateness in human early social life

This research is concerned with the innate predispositions underlying human intentional communication. Human communication is currently defined as a circular and overt attempt to modify a partner's mental states. This requires each party involved to posse ss the ability to represent and understand the other's mental states, a capability which is commonly referred to as mindreading, or theory of mind (ToM). The relevant experimental literature agrees that no such capability is to be found in the human speci es at least during the first year of life, and possibly later. This paper aims at advancing a solution to this theoretical problem. We propose to consider sharedness as the basis for intentional communication in the infant and to view it as a primitive, i nnate component of her cognitive architecture. Communication can then build upon the mental grounds that the infant takes as shared with her caregivers. We view this capability as a theory of mind in a weak sense.

Rethinking the ontogeny of mindreading

We propose a mentalistic and nativist view of human early mental and social life and of the ontogeny of mindreading. We define the mental state of sharedness as the primitive, one-sided capability to take one's own mental states as mutually known to an i nteractant. We argue that this capability is an innate feature of the human mind, which the child uses to make a subjective sense of the world and of her actions. We argue that the child takes all of her mental states as shared with her caregivers. This a llows her to interact with her caregivers in a mentalistic way from the very beginning and provides the grounds on which the later maturation of mindreading will build. As the latter process occurs, the child begins to understand the mental world in terms of differences between the mental states of different agents; subjectively, this also corresponds to the birth of privateness.

Th.o.m.a.s.: An exploratory assessment of Theory of Mind in schizophrenic subjects

A large body of literature agrees that persons with schizophrenia suffer from a Theory of Mind (ToM) deficit. However, most empirical studies have focused on third-person, egocentric ToM, underestimating other facets of this complex cognitive skill. Aim of this research is to examine the ToM of schizophrenic persons considering its various aspects (first vs. second order, first vs. third person, egocentric vs. allocentric, beliefs vs. desires vs. positive emotions vs. negative emotions and how each of these mental state types may be dealt with), to determine whether some components are more impaired than others. We developed a Theory of Mind Assessment Scale (Th.o.m.a.s.) and administered it to 22 persons with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia and a matching control group. Th.o.m.a.s. is a semi-structured interview which allows a multi-component measurement of ToM. Both groups were also administered a few existing ToM tasks and the schizophrenic subjects were administered the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale and the WAIS-R. The schizophrenic persons performed worse than control at all the ToM measurements; however, these deficits appeared to be differently distributed among different components of ToM. Our conclusion is that ToM deficits are not unitary in schizophrenia, which also testifies to the importance of a complete and articulated investigation of ToM

The complexity of theory of mind

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Anisotropic straining of graphene using micropatterned SiN membranes

We use micro-Raman spectroscopy to study strain profiles in graphene monolayers suspended over SiN membranes micropatterned with holes of non-circular geometry. We show that a uniform differential pressure load $\Delta P$ over elliptical regions of free-standing graphene yields measurable deviations from hydrostatic strain conventionally observed in radially-symmetric microbubbles. The top hydrostatic strain $\bar{\varepsilon}$ we observe is estimated to be $\approx0.7\%$ for $\Delta P = 1\,{\rm bar}$ in graphene clamped to elliptical SiN holes with axis $40$ and $20\,{\rm \mu m}$. In the same configuration, we report a $G_\pm$ splitting of $10\,{\rm cm^{-1}}$ which is in good agreement with the calculated anisotropy $\Delta\varepsilon \approx 0.6\%$ for our device geometry. Our results are consistent with the most recent reports on the Gr\"uneisen parameters. Perspectives for the achievement of arbitrary strain configurations by designing suitable SiN holes and boundary clamping conditions are discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure (including SI

Pragmatics, Theory of Mind and executive functions in schizophrenia: Disentangling the puzzle using machine learning

OBJECTIVE:Schizophrenia is associated with a severe impairment in the communicative-pragmatic domain. Recent research has tried to disentangle the relationship between communicative impairment and other domains usually impaired in schizophrenia, i.e. Theory of Mind (ToM) and cognitive functions. However, the results are inconclusive and this relationship is still unclear. Machine learning (ML) provides novel opportunities for studying complex relationships among phenomena and representing causality among multiple variables. The present research explored the potential of applying ML, specifically Bayesian network (BNs) analysis, to characterize the relationship between cognitive, ToM and pragmatic abilities in individuals with schizophrenia and healthy controls, and to identify the cognitive and pragmatic abilities that are most informative in discriminating between schizophrenia and controls. METHODS:We provided a comprehensive assessment of different aspects of pragmatic performance, i.e. linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic, contextual and conversational, ToM and cognitive functions, i.e. Executive Functions (EF)-selective attention, planning, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory and speed processing-and general intelligence, in a sample of 32 individuals with schizophrenia and 35 controls. RESULTS:The results showed that the BNs classifier discriminated well between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. The network structure revealed that only pragmatic Linguistic ability directly influenced the classification of patients and controls, while diagnosis determined performance on ToM, Extralinguistic, Paralinguistic, Selective Attention, Planning, Inhibition and Cognitive Flexibility tasks. The model identified pragmatic, ToM and cognitive abilities as three distinct domains independent of one another. CONCLUSION:Taken together, our results confirmed the importance of considering pragmatic linguistic impairment as a core dysfunction in schizophrenia, and demonstrated the potential of applying BNs in investigating the relationship between pragmatic ability and cognition

ABaCo: Assessment Battery for Communication

\ud Human communication is\ud one of the most complex social\ud activity: it is a process of meaning\ud construction which cooperatively\ud involves all participants taking\ud part in the interaction. Various\ud clinical conditions may lead to\ud impairments of communicative\ud abilities: developmental disorders\ud (e.g., autism, specific language\ud impairment, Down syndrome),\ud brain pathologies (e.g., closed\ud head injury, right hemisphere\ud damage, aphasia), psychiatric disorders\ud (schizophrenia), disorders\ud of old age (e.g. dementia). The\ud assessment of a patient’s abilities\ud and disabilities is the crucial starting\ud point for planning an efficient\ud rehabilitation path, where\ud residual capacities are strengthen\ud and, whenever possible, impaired\ud components are restored. However,\ud while the phonological,\ud syntactic and semantic components\ud of language can be assessed\ud by numerous tests, instruments\ud for the evaluation of pragmatic\ud aspects of communication are\ud scarce (see Sacco et al., 2008 for a\ud more detailed analysis of the existing\ud instruments for the assessment\ud of communication).\ud The Assessment Battery for\ud Communication (ABaCo) has\ud been created to be a theoretically\ud grounded, wide-range clinical\ud instrument. Its theoretical bases\ud stem from Cognitive Pragmatics\ud theory (Airenti, Bara & Colombetti,\ud 1993; Bara, 2010), a theory of\ud the cognitive processes underlying\ud human communicative exchanges,\ud framed within the inferential\ud model of communication (Grice,\ud 1975) and the speech acts perspective\ud (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969).\ud The theory has been shown to\ud be able to make predictions on\ud typically developing children (Bucciarelli,\ud Colle & Bara, 2003; Bosco,\ud Bucciarelli & Bara, 2004; 2006;\ud Bosco & Buciarelli, 2008; Bosco,\ud Vallana & Bucciarelli, 2012), atypically\ud developing children (Bara,\ud Bosco & Bucciarelli, 1999; Bara,\ud Bucciarelli & Colle, 2001; De\ud Marco, Colle & Bucciarelli, 2007),\ud patients with traumatic brain injury\ud (Bara, Tirassa & Zettin, 1997;\ud Bara, Cutica & Tirassa, 2001; Angeleri\ud et al., 2008), patients with right\ud and left focal brain lesions (Cutica,\ud Bucciarelli & Bara, 2006), patients\ud with Alzheimer’s disease (Bara,\ud Bucciarelli & Geminiani, 2000)\ud and patients with schizophrenia\ud (Bosco, Bono & Bara, 2012). In\ud this view, communication is the\ud ability to comprehend and produce\ud linguistic and extralinguistic\ud communication acts, accompanied\ud by suitable paralinguistic features,\ud appropriate with respect to discourse\ud and social norms, and fluently\ud integrated within the conversation.\ud The ABaCo assesses each of\ud these components, encompassing\ud the major aspects involved in communication.\ud In this paper, we will\ud briefly describe the features of the\ud battery, and summarize its psychometric\ud properties, providing some\ud suggestions for clinical application