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Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum

In this case report, we studied Theory of Mind (ToM) and figurative language comprehension in a 7.2-year-old child, conventionally named RJ, with isolated and complete agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC), a rare malformation due to the absence of the corpus callosum, the major tract connecting the...

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Autores principales: Melogno, Sergio, Pinto, Maria Antonietta, Scalisi, Teresa Gloria, Badolato, Fausto, Parisi, Pasquale
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7900504/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33633625
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.596804
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author Melogno, Sergio
Pinto, Maria Antonietta
Scalisi, Teresa Gloria
Badolato, Fausto
Parisi, Pasquale
author_facet Melogno, Sergio
Pinto, Maria Antonietta
Scalisi, Teresa Gloria
Badolato, Fausto
Parisi, Pasquale
author_sort Melogno, Sergio
collection PubMed
description In this case report, we studied Theory of Mind (ToM) and figurative language comprehension in a 7.2-year-old child, conventionally named RJ, with isolated and complete agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC), a rare malformation due to the absence of the corpus callosum, the major tract connecting the two brain hemispheres. To study ToM, which is the capability to infer the other’s mental states, we used the classical false belief tasks, and to study figurative language, i.e., those linguistic usages involving non-literal meanings, we used tasks assessing metaphor and idiom comprehension. RJ’s intellectual level and his phonological, lexical, and grammatical abilities were all adequate. In both the ToM false belief tasks and novel sensory metaphor comprehension, RJ showed a delay of 3 years and a significant gap compared to a typically developing control group, while in idioms, his performance was at the border of average. These outcomes suggest that RJ has a specific pragmatic difficulty in all tasks where he must interpret the other’s communicative intention, as in ToM tasks and novel sensory metaphor comprehension. The outcomes also open up interesting insights into the relationships between ToM and figurative language in children with isolated and complete ACC.
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spelling pubmed-79005042021-02-24 Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum Melogno, Sergio Pinto, Maria Antonietta Scalisi, Teresa Gloria Badolato, Fausto Parisi, Pasquale Front Psychol Psychology In this case report, we studied Theory of Mind (ToM) and figurative language comprehension in a 7.2-year-old child, conventionally named RJ, with isolated and complete agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC), a rare malformation due to the absence of the corpus callosum, the major tract connecting the two brain hemispheres. To study ToM, which is the capability to infer the other’s mental states, we used the classical false belief tasks, and to study figurative language, i.e., those linguistic usages involving non-literal meanings, we used tasks assessing metaphor and idiom comprehension. RJ’s intellectual level and his phonological, lexical, and grammatical abilities were all adequate. In both the ToM false belief tasks and novel sensory metaphor comprehension, RJ showed a delay of 3 years and a significant gap compared to a typically developing control group, while in idioms, his performance was at the border of average. These outcomes suggest that RJ has a specific pragmatic difficulty in all tasks where he must interpret the other’s communicative intention, as in ToM tasks and novel sensory metaphor comprehension. The outcomes also open up interesting insights into the relationships between ToM and figurative language in children with isolated and complete ACC. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7900504/ /pubmed/33633625 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.596804 Text en Copyright © 2021 Melogno, Pinto, Scalisi, Badolato and Parisi. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Melogno, Sergio
Pinto, Maria Antonietta
Scalisi, Teresa Gloria
Badolato, Fausto
Parisi, Pasquale
Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
title Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
title_full Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
title_fullStr Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
title_full_unstemmed Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
title_short Case Report: Theory of Mind and Figurative Language in a Child With Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum
title_sort case report: theory of mind and figurative language in a child with agenesis of the corpus callosum
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7900504/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33633625
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.596804
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