No description available.

Autisme et schizophrénie sont deux troubles psychiatriques neuro-développementaux. L’étude des formes précoces de schizophrénie, fréquemment associées aux troubles du spectre de l’autisme (TSA), a suggéré un possible continuum développemental entre ces troubles. Des arguments cliniques et épidémiologiques, et issus des études en génétique moléculaire ou en imagerie cérébrale, sont progressivement venus étayer cette hypothèse. Dans ce contexte, l’étude de la cognition sociale a fait l’objet d’un intérêt particulier, des altérations étant rapportées dans les deux troubles avec toutefois des résultats contrastés, révélant autant de points communs que de différences. Les relations entre altération de la cognition sociale et charge neuro-développementale ont par ailleurs été peu explorées. A travers nos trois études, nous avons confirmé l’existence d’altérations de la cognition sociale dans les TSA et la schizophrénie. Le MASC (Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition), épreuve mixte et originale dont nous avons validé la version française, a permis de montrer une altération globale des capacités de mentalisation plus importante dans les TSA que dans la schizophrénie. Les Triangles Animés (épreuve d’attribution d’intention reposant sur un matériel non verbal) ont permis de révéler des différences qualitatives : tandis que l’hypomentalisation est commune aux deux troubles, l’hypermentalisation apparaît plus marquée dans la schizophrénie. Par ailleurs, à travers un continuum autisme-schizophrénie, l’altération de la cognition sociale était liée à la désorganisation de la pensée et du langage, et à l’importance des signes neurologiques mineurs (marqueur de vulnérabilité neurodéveloppementale). En outre, chez les sujets avec schizophrénie, l’hypermentalisation était corrélée à la précocité d’installation du trouble. Nos résultats soulignent l’intérêt de pouvoir repérer chez des patients adultes un trouble du développement. En ce sens, nous avons présenté les premiers éléments de validation d’un autoquestionnaire de dépistage des troubles du développement, permettant en population adulte un repérage rétrospectif des signes et symptômes d’autisme présents dans l’enfance. En conclusion, nos résultats apportent des arguments en faveur du continuum autisme-schizophrénie, en montrant l’existence d’une altération de la cognition sociale, dans ces deux troubles, corrélée à la charge neuro-développementale de façon trans-nosographique. Il existe toutefois des différences qualitatives. Un sous-groupe de sujets avec schizophrénie dont le trouble a débuté précocement semble par ailleurs se dessiner, caractérisé par une tendance à hyper-mentaliser et présentant une désorganisation plus marquée. / Autism and schizophrenia are both neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders. Research on early-onset schizophrenia, commonly associated to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), suggested a possible developmental continuum between both of these disorders. Clinical and epidemiological evidence, and research from molecular genetics or brain imaging, come to support this hypothesis. In this context, social cognition is a matter of special interest. Impairments are reported both in the two disorders, but with inconsistent results, revealing common features as well as differences. Otherwise, links between social cognition impairments and neurodevelopmental burden have been until now poorly explored. Through the contribution of our three studies, we confirmed the importance of social cognition impairment in autism and schizophrenia. The MASC test (Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition), an original tool which was by our findings validated in a French version, revealed higher overall impairment of mentalizing capabilities in ASD than in schizophrenia. Animated Shapes (non verbal test of attribution of intentions) revealed qualitative differences: whereas hypomentalizing is common both to ASD and schizophrenia, overmentalizing seemed to be more important in schizophrenia. Furthermore, along a continuum between autism and schizophrenia, social cognition impairment was linked to thought and language disorganization, and to neurological soft signs (a marker for neurodevelopmental load). In addition, in subjects with schizophrenia, overmentalizing was correlated to the precocity of onset of the disease. Altogether, our results highlight the need to screen developmental feature in adulthood. In that way, we presented preliminary results in order to validate a developmental disorders screening self-rated questionnaire. As a conclusion, our results bring evidence in favour of a hypothesis of a continuum between autism and schizophrenia, showing a social cognition impairment in both disorders, correlated to the neurodevelopmental load existing in both of them in a transnosographic way. We contributed to emphasize the sub-group of subjects with schizophrenia with early-onset of disease, characterized by a tendency to overmentalizing and presenting a marked disorganization. Our work provides avenue to further studies, integrating neuroimaging and genetic data, that will help to advance in a deeper comprehension of the pathophysiology of autism and schizophrenia. Furthermore, we used and validated in this work promising tools to improve finely psychopathological evaluation and differential diagnosis in adults suffering from autism and from schizophrenia.

On nomme culture un ensemble d’informations que les membres d’un groupe échangent par transmission sociale (imitation, communication...) sous la forme d’idées, de comportements ou d’artefacts. Les cultures développées chez l’espèce humaine sont plus complexes que chez les autres espèces. On attribue cela au processus d’évolution culturelle qui, chez l’humain, est cumulatif : au fur et à mesure de leur diffusion, certains traits culturels accumuleront des modifications jusqu’à devenir plus complexe et plus performants que ce qu’un individu seul aurait été capable de produire. On nomme ce processus le ratchet effect.Le projet de cette thèse était d’investiguer les mécanismes cognitifs impliqués dans l’émergence du ratchet effect. Nous avons reproduit ce phénomène en conditions expérimentales grâce à la méthode de transmission en chaîne afin de tester le pouvoir prédictif du raisonnement technique, de la théorie de l’esprit, de la créativité et de l’intelligence fluide dans la progression constante des performances au fil des générations. La première étude investigue le rôle de ces quatre facteurs dans une tâche de résolution de problème mécanique (construction de tour en fils de fer) dans une condition Communication (i.e., les participants sont autorisés à parler entre eux) et une condition Observation (i.e., les participants ne peuvent pas communiquer). Nous avons découvert que le raisonnement technique prédisait le mieux l’apparition du ratchet effect dans les deux conditions, tandis que les compétences en théorie de l’esprit ne permettaient aucune prédiction, ce qui va à l’encontre des principales hypothèses formulées sur les fondements sociocognitifs de la culture cumulative. La deuxième étude explorait l’influence des facteurs de raisonnement technique et de théorie de l’esprit sur la même tâche, dans une condition Monitoring (i.e., les participant communiquent indirectement en s’aidant d’une transmission vidéo) et une condition Blind (i.e., les participants ne se voient pas ils ne peuvent que communiquer verbalement). Les compétences en raisonnement technique prédisent encore une fois l’émergence d’un ratchet effect, tandis que la théorie de l’esprit semble prédire le même effet dans la condition Blind uniquement. Ces résultats démontrent le poids de l’influence du raisonnement technique dans la création, la transmission et l’amélioration d’un trait culturel matériel, tandis que les compétences en théorie de l’esprit ne sont impliquées que dans une condition particulièrement abstraite où les individus n’ont pas de lien visuel. La troisième étude explore les conditions conduisant les individus à copier ou à innover une technique ou un outil. Il s’agit de reproduire une situation non familière, en demandant à un participant d’exécuter une tâche matérielle (fabrication d’un panier à partir d’objets de la vie quotidienne) dont on fait varier les risques et l’opacité de la tâche (i.e., dont les mécanismes intervenant entre l’état initial et le produit final sont difficiles à comprendre). Il s’avère que les participants avaient plus souvent tendance à reproduire les mêmes actions qu’en démonstration et en employant les mêmes objets lorsqu’ils étaient testés dans une conditions risquée et opaque, tandis qu’ils employaient de nouveaux objets et de nouvelles actions dans une tâche non risquée et transparente. / Culture is a set of information that members of a group share through social transmission (imitation, communication ...) in the form of ideas, behaviors or artifacts. Cultural traits developed by humans are more complex than in other species. This is attributed to the process of cultural evolution which, in humans, is cumulative. Along with their diffusion, cultural traits become more complex and perform progressively better by accumulating changes over generations, a process called the ratchet effect. The project of this thesis was to investigate cognitive mechanisms involved in the emergence of the ratchet effect. We simulated this phenomenon under experimental conditions using thechain transmission method in order to test the predictive power of technical reasoning, theory-of-mind skills, creativity and fluid intelligence in the constant progression of performances across generations. The first study investigated the role of these four factors in a mechanical problem solving task (tower construction with wires) in a Communication condition (i.e., participants are allowed to talk to each other) and an Observation condition (i.e., participants cannot communicate). Our strongest prediction regarding this paradigm involved technical reasoning, for having proven a better predictor of a ratchet effect than theory of mind skills. The same observation was made in both conditions, while theory of mind skills did not allow to predict any ratchet effect. The second study explored the influence of technical reasoning and theory-of-mind skills on the same task, in a Monitoring condition (i.e., participants communicate indirectly through a video feed) and a Blind condition (i.e., participants communicate verbally without seeing each other). Technical reasoning skills predicted once again the emergence of a ratchet effect, while theory-of-mind skills predicted the same effect in the Blind condition only. These results demonstrate the weight of technical reasoning in thecreation, transmission, and improvement of a material cultural trait, while theory-ofmind skills are involved only in a particularly abstract situation where individuals have no visual cues. The third study explored the conditions leading individuals to copy or innovate a technique or tool. Participants were tested in an unfamiliar situation, and were asked to achieve a material task (making a basket out of everyday life objects). Conditions varied based on opacity (i.e., mechanisms involved between the initial state and the final product are difficult to understand) and risk levels. It turned out that participants were more likely to reproduce the same actions and objects used in a demonstration when tested in a risky and opaque condition, while they used more often new objects and new actions in a non-risky, transparent task.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:56:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese Simone Ferreira da Silva Domingues.pdf: 360013 bytes, checksum: 0703f8f0b3a1fa8e49c0990d69836f02 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-04-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / There are evidences that the conversation and explanation about mind studies influence the capacity to comprehend one s mind which arises as the success in false belief tasks. However, there are still few studies about the theory of mind that may test the hypothesis of precedence concerning linguistic abilities related to the ability of assignment of mind states by applying intervention procedures. The experimental research presented herein is aimed at checking the effects of intervention over the assignment ability of children s mental states of belief. The investigation was done in three phases: pre-test, intervention and post-test. The intervention was based upon the explanation of false belief tasks followed by demonstrations using as aids gestures and objects aside from the explanatatory speech. Forty-four male and female children took part in this research. Their age vary from 3.5 to 4.7 years old and they attend a day care center for low income families in the east area of São Paulo. The attained results were possible through conversation with these children when they could talk about the events which involve mind actions, along with demonstrations and handling the material. Such results indicated that children from the experimental group (GE) partially benefited themselves from the interventional procedure, except in just one task, and it was observed a significant difference in the performance of the experimental group (GE) when compared to the performance of the control group (GC). The activities favored the occurrence of the attribution ability of mind states of belief and the effects remained in the experimental group (GE) after three weeks. The qualitative analysis concerning the behavior of the children from the experimental group during the playful situations applied as interventional procedure show a clear relation between implied participation and afterward advances in the false belief tasks. Therefore, under the intervention, when the children paid more attention and used more answers related to behavior explanations, they presented better results in the false belief tasks. On the other hand, children in whom intervention had no effect shared the lack of attention and did not give any answers related to behavior explanations. These results support the hypothesis pointing to the existence of a relation between the ability of assignment of mind states and the development of language. ABSTRACT There are evidences that the conversation and explanation about mind studies influence the capacity to comprehend one s mind which arises as the success in false belief tasks. However, there are still few studies about the theory of mind that may test the hypothesis of precedence concerning linguistic abilities related to the ability of assignment of mind states by applying intervention procedures. The experimental research presented herein is aimed at checking the effects of intervention over the assignment ability of children s mental states of belief. The investigation was done in three phases: pre-test, intervention and post-test. The intervention was based upon the explanation of false belief tasks followed by demonstrations using as aids gestures and objects aside from the explanatatory speech. Forty-four male and female children took part in this research. Their age vary from 3.5 to 4.7 years old and they attend a day care center for low income families in the east area of São Paulo. The attained results were possible through conversation with these children when they could talk about the events which involve mind actions, along with demonstrations and handling the material. Such results indicated that children from the experimental group (GE) partially benefited themselves from the interventional procedure, except in just one task, and it was observed a significant difference in the performance of the experimental group (GE) when compared to the performance of the control group (GC). The activities favored the occurrence of the attribution ability of mind states of belief and the effects remained in the experimental group (GE) after three weeks. The qualitative analysis concerning the behavior of the children from the experimental group during the playful situations applied as interventional procedure show a clear relation between implied participation and afterward advances in the false belief tasks. Therefore, under the intervention, when the children paid more attention and used more answers related to behavior explanations, they presented better results in the false belief tasks. On the other hand, children in whom intervention had no effect shared the lack of attention and did not give any answers related to behavior explanations. These results support the hypothesis pointing to the existence of a relation between the ability of assignment of mind states and the development of language / Há evidências de que a conversação e a explanação sobre estados mentais têm influência sobre a capacidade de compreensão da mente do outro, manifestada sob a forma de sucesso em tarefas de falsa crença. No entanto, ainda são escassos estudos na área da teoria da mente que testem hipóteses de precedência de habilidades lingüísticas em relação à habilidade de atribuição de estados mentais, utilizando procedimentos de intervenção. A presente pesquisa, do tipo experimental, teve por objetivo verificar os efeitos de uma intervenção sobre a habilidade de atribuição de estados mentais de crença e foi desenvolvida em três fases: pré-teste, intervenção, pós-teste. A intervenção foi baseada na explicação de tarefas de falsa crença e acompanhada por demonstrações com a ajuda de gestos e de objetos, além da fala explicativa. Participaram da pesquisa 44 crianças de ambos os sexos, com idade variando de 3,5 a 4,7 anos, que freqüentavam uma creche situada na zona leste da cidade de São Paulo, que atende crianças provenientes de famílias de baixa renda. Os resultados obtidos através das conversações realizadas com as crianças para falar sobre eventos que implicam ações mentais, juntamente com demonstrações e manipulação do material, indicaram que as crianças do grupo experimental (GE) se beneficiaram, parcialmente, com o procedimento de intervenção e, à exceção de uma única tarefa, foi observada uma diferença significativa no desempenho do grupo experimental (GE) em relação ao desempenho do grupo controle (GC). As atividades favoreceram o surgimento da habilidade de atribuição de estados mentais de crença e os efeitos se mantiveram no grupo experimental (GE), após três semanas. As análises qualitativas do comportamento das crianças do grupo experimental, durante as situações lúdicas utilizadas como procedimento de intervenção, mostraram uma clara relação entre participação implicada e posteriores avanços nas tarefas de falsa crença. Assim, quando na intervenção as crianças demonstravam mais atenção e usavam mais respostas de explicação de conduta, elas apresentavam melhores resultados nas tarefas de falsa crença. Em contrapartida, crianças para as quais a intervenção não teve efeito, tinham em comum a falta de atenção e não deram respostas de explicação de conduta. Esses resultados dão sustentação às hipóteses que apontam para a existência de uma relação entre a habilidade de atribuição de estados mentais e desenvolvimento da linguagem

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:58:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Soares Freitas de Souza.pdf: 2098980 bytes, checksum: 0e5cba009d20fa524b503614f63f02d4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-10-23 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / The ability of attributing mental states - desires, intentions and beliefs - to oneself and others has been named theory of mind. Such ability is necessary for the human being to understand and participate in social relations and it can be revealed in false-belief tasks. There are signals that the child s participation in conversational activities about events that involve mind actions may influence the ability of attributing beliefs to others. Thus, the existence of a narrow relation between the theory of mind and language can be accepted. The purpose of the present study was to check the effects of an intervention process in which mental states of beliefs are explained to participants through conversations in ludic situations concerning the ability of understanding the other ones mind. It was accepted the hypothesis that such process contributes to the acquisition of the ability of attributing mental states of beliefs in preschool children. The present research, which is quisi-experimental type, was developed in three steps: a) pre-test: a test of verbal level and the first five tasks in theory of mind from Wellman and Liu scale were performed; b) intervention: four ludic sessions were carried out in which the researcher told stories involving comprehension and attribution of mental states to the characters, i.e., desires, intentions and beliefs to others, based on the tasks from Wellman and Liu scale, by using some language that emphasizes mental verbs; post-test: in post-test 1, on the day after the last intervention, five pre-test tasks were performed; in post-test 2, two weeks later, the same pre-test tasks were performed. The participants were 10 children, 6 boys and 4 girls, whose age range was 4,9 - 5,11 years old; their socioeconomic level is low and they attend a city public school in the state of Bahia. The results showed that the children achieved progress in understanding false-belief after the intervention process. In general, the conversation strategies used in the intervention collaborated on the advancement in the capacity of attributing mental states of beliefs in others. These results support the hypothesis of a relation between the theory of mind and the development of language / A habilidade de atribuir a si próprio e a outra pessoa, estados mentais como desejos, intenções e crenças, tem sido denominada teoria da mente. Essa habilidade é necessária para o ser humano compreender e participar das relações sociais e pode ser revelada em tarefas de crença falsa. Há indícios de que a participação da criança em atividades de conversações sobre eventos que implicam ações mentais pode influenciar na habilidade de atribuição de crença ao outro. Assim, pode-se aceitar a existência de uma estreita relação entre teoria da mente e linguagem. A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo verificar os efeitos de um procedimento de intervenção em que são explicados aos participantes os estados mentais de crença por meio de conversações em situações lúdicas. Aceitou-se a hipótese de que a utilização desse procedimento contribui para a aquisição da habilidade de atribuição de estados mentais de crença em crianças em idade préescolar. A pesquisa, do tipo quase-experimental, foi feita em três fases: a) pré-teste - foram aplicadas uma prova de nível verbal e as cinco primeiras tarefas em teoria da mente da escala de Wellman e Liu; b) intervenção - foram realizadas 4 sessões lúdicas, com narração de histórias que envolviam compreensão e atribuição de estados mentais aos personagens, com ênfase no uso de verbos mentais; c) pósteste - no pós-teste 1, realizado no dia seguinte à última intervenção, foram reaplicadas as cinco tarefas do pré-teste; no pós-teste 2, realizado após duas semanas do pós-teste 1, foram utilizadas as mesmas tarefas. Participaram 10 crianças, sendo 6 meninos e 4 meninas, com idade variando de 4,9 a 5,11 anos, provenientes de famílias de nível socioeconômico baixo, que frequentavam uma escola municipal no interior do Estado da Bahia. Os resultados mostraram que as crianças progrediram na compreensão da crença falsa após o procedimento de intervenção. De modo geral, as estratégias de conversações empregadas na intervenção favoreceram avanço na capacidade de atribuição de estados mentais de crença ao outro. Esses resultados amparam a hipótese de uma relação entre a teoria da mente e o desenvolvimento da linguagem

La Théorie de l’Esprit est l’ensemble des capacités cognitives permettant à un individu de se mettre à la place d’autrui. Longtemps considérée comme spécifiquement humaine, de plus en plus de comportements sociaux complexes sont rapportés chez les grands singes et plus récemment chez certaines espèces de singes, rendant son existence au sein d’autres espèces hautement débattue. Ce travail s’intéresse aux capacités de macaques à discriminer l’attention, la perception et les intentions d’autrui en situation de coopération ou de compétition, intraspécifique ou interspécifique. Dans ces expériences, les macaques se comportaient différemment selon les états d’attention, la perception visuelle et les intentions de leurs partenaires. Toutefois, les mécanismes sous-jacents à ces comportements complexes restent incertains. Les primates non humains peuvent en effet être de très bons lecteurs de comportements, capables de déchiffrer les comportements des autres sur la base d’apprentissages associatifs, mais pourraient également faire usage de représentations mentales. / Theory of Mind is the set of cognitive abilities allowing an individual to put himself in the place of others. Considered as specifically human for a long time, more and more complex social behaviours are reported in great apes, and more recently in some monkeys’ species. This work focuses on attention, perception and intention reading abilities in macaques in cooperative or competitive experiments and in interspecific and intraspecific situations. In these experiment, macaques behaved differently according to the attentional state, visual perception and intentions of their partners. However, the underlying mechanisms of these complex behaviours remain uncertain. Nonhuman primates would thus be very good behaviour readers, capable of decoding others behaviours via associative learning but could also use mental representations.

Em uma época em que o excesso de informações, técnicas e padrões parecem sufocar o indivíduo; e ao mesmo tempo, incitá-lo a questionar a si próprio e ao próximo diante de situações a serem resolvidas; torna-se imprescindível pensar nas possibilidades de compreensão e simplificação de sua rotina, isso sem causar a perda da essência do que é de fato ser humano. Surgem daí questões fundamentais para investigar a sobrevivência e o convívio harmônico da espécie, ou seja, buscar princípios correspondentes ao anseio de viver juntos e em paz. Posto dessa maneira, a pesquisa em questão tem como objetivo dialogar sobre esses assuntos por meio da educação de novas metodologias frente à aprendizagem de diversos saberes nos quais envolvam o mundo, seus objetos e, por fim, suas relações. Desse modo, a fim de entender melhor as necessidades humanas no processo de aprendizagem, realizei um estudo sobre a teoria da mente, que foi seguido de uma pesquisa de campo cuja base foi observar as novas pedagogias postas em ação, especificamente, em duas escolas: a EMEF Desembargador Amorim Lima e Escola Waldorf. Ao cumprir essa demanda, entrevistei alguns professores para analisar quais motivos que levaram à adoção dessa nova diretriz em suas práticas de ensino. Opção tomada na busca de subsidiar a formação de seus alunos, no sentido de torná-los adultos capazes de criticar e refletir sobre a sua própria realidade, permitindo, assim, a criação de mecanismos de interação com o mundo ao seu redor. / In an age where the sheer breadth of information, techniques and patterns appear to stifle the individual, but at the same time, encourage him/her to question oneself and others in situations that need a resolution, it is important to try and understand and simplify ones approach so as not to lose the essence of what it is to maintain ones \"humanity\". This leads to fundamental questions regarding the survival and harmonious coexistence of the species, i.e., in the effort to find ways and principles that lead to living together in peace. As such, this research intends to address these issues through the promotion (and via education) of newer methodologies and current knowledge (as opposed to outdated knowledge and materials) of the world, its objects and, their complex relationships using the modern marvels of technology, art and other mechanisms heretofor not considered. In the effort to better understand human needs in the learning process, I conducted a study on the theory of the mind, followed by a field study/examination, the purpose of which was to observe how new teaching methods put into action, specifically in two schools: EMEF Desembargador Amorim Lima and Waldorf Schools. Accordingly, I interviewed several teachers to learn their motivations for the adoption of this new direction in their teaching practices, after they graduated from the traditional educational system. I found that their approach took into consideration subsidizing the education of their students in order to give them the opportunity to grow into thinking adults who are able to criticize and reflect on their own reality, thus allowing the creation of mechanisms of interaction with the world around them.

A linguagem tem um papel fundamental para o desenvolvimento infantil, uma vez que possibilita à criança construir conceitos do self e do outro, especialmente nos contextos construídos por seus cuidadores e nas trocas interacionais. A proposta da presente pesquisa é analisar associações entre o tipo de discurso materno, quanto a características de orientação cultural para a interdependência e/ou para a autonomia, e o desenvolvimento cognitivo da criança avaliado pelo desempenho em testes de compreensão de intencionalidade e direção do olhar, no contexto de depressão pós-parto. O projeto insere-se em um estudo longitudinal mais amplo (Temático FAPESP nº 06/59192), que acompanha díades mãe-criança de uma amostra atendida pelo sistema público de saúde, em que era aferido haver ou não depressão por meio da Escala de Edimburgo (pós-parto e 36 meses). Foram feitos registros em vídeo da interação livre mãe-criança por 10 minutos, para avaliação do discurso materno, e da criança nos testes em interação com um pesquisador. O estilo de discurso materno foi classificado segundo categorias elaboradas por Heidi Keller, associadas à ideia de autonomia (ex. agência, autorreferência) ou de relacionamento (ex. coagência, referência a autoridade). O escore correspondente à autonomia e ao relacionamento foi calculado pela soma das frequências das respectivas categorias, controlado pelo número de emissões da fala categorizadas. A compreensão de intencionalidade foi avaliada por meio de duas histórias ilustrativas que mostram um personagem no processo de busca de um objeto (A) em um local previsto e, em seguida, a descoberta inesperada de um objeto diferente, mais desejável (B) em seu lugar. O protocolo avalia cada etapa de aplicação do teste. O teste de direção do olhar foi composto por três tarefas nas quais a criança deveria identificar: qual das figuras está olhando para ela?; o personagem está olhando para onde?, e apontando para onde?, associadas a perguntas sobre o que o personagem quer? Foi verificado um efeito da DPP na adesão à tarefa no teste Compreensão de Intencionalidade (CI). A dificuldade do teste de Direção do Olhar (DO) prevaleceu com o cansaço. Todavia, foi identificada correlação negativa entre o escore da DPP e o desempenho em etapas do teste. A DPP parece ter produzido mais efeito do que a depressão aos 36 meses. Os casos que indicam cronicidade da depressão são mais prejudicados. Um elemento destaque foi a análise do discurso, que revelou muito sobre o contexto de depressão e do desempenho das crianças. O discurso autônomo esteve negativamente relacionado ao escore DPP e aos 36 meses, e positivamente ao desempenho. Destaca-se que no contexto de depressão, as crianças que tiveram bom desempenho foram as das mães que apresentaram maior percentual nas categorias de autonomia, quando comparado com o grupo baixo desempenho e DPP. De modo geral, não encontramos efeitos lineares e diretos da DPP prejudicando o desenvolvimento, mas verificamos variações sugestivas. Tudo indica que o comportamento materno e, principalmente, o resultado deste em termos de desenvolvimento, irá depender muito da configuração geral do contexto socioafetivo, e que a depressão é um dos elementos efetivos desta conjugação / Language has a vital role in children´s construction of self and the relation to others in interactional exchanges. Mothers´ talk to their children reflects their cultural models or ethno-theories. In this presentation the results of a study focusing on the relation between maternal speech, as presenting the characteristics of a cultural orientation to interdependence and / or autonomy, with children\'s cognitive development, assessed by performance on tests of understanding of intentionality and direction of gaze, in the context of postpartum depression. The project is part of a larger, longitudinal study (FAPESP No. 06/59192), which follows a sample of mother-child dyads served by a public health system, when it was measured whether or not depression through Edinburgh Scale (postpartum and 36 months). Video recordings of free mother-child interactions for 10 minutes were made to evaluate the conversational maternal style. Children were observed in their interactional tasks with an experimenter. Mother´s speech style was classified according to categories developed by Heidi Keller, associated with the concept of agency (i.e. mental states, self-reference) or relationship (i.e. co-agency, reference to authority). Scores on both categories were calculated as the sum of the frequencies of the respective categories, controlling the total number of emissions categorized. Intentionality understanding was evaluated by means of two illustrative stories that show a character in the process of searching for an object (A) in a place provided, and then, the unexpected discovery of a different object, the more desirable (B) in its place. The protocol evaluates each step of the test. The test of gaze direction was composed of three tasks that the child should identify: what the figures are looking at; To what is the character is looking; where is he/she pointing, associated to questions about \"what the character wants?\" The effect of PPD was found in adherence to the task in testing Intentionality Understanding (IC). The difficulty of the Gaze Direction (GD) test has prevailed with tiredness, but a negative correlation was identified with scores of PPD and performance in steps of the test. The DPP produced more effect than depression at 36 months, and indicates to the importance of early development. The cases of chronic depressions suggest to be more affected. One key element was the of speech analysis, this revealed much about the context of depression and performance of children. The style of autonomy speech was negatively related to score PPD and the 36 months, and positively to the children\'s performance. It is noteworthy that in the context of depressed children who had good performance their mothers presented greater percentage in autonomy compared to the group of low performance and PPD. Overall, we found no direct linear effects of the DPP that could hinder the development, but we found suggestive variations. Everything indicates that maternal behavior, and especially the result from this in terms of development will greatly depend on the socio-affective context configuration and depression is one of the effective elements of this combination

Les difficultés de théorie de l’esprit (ToM) associées à la schizophrénie (SZ) et la schizotypie (Szt) seraient dues à un trouble élémentaire de traitement du contexte. Or, traiter le contexte engagerait deux types de processus inégalement atteints dans la SZ: les processus prédictifs (génération de prédictions) seraient préservés et les processus intégratifs (intégration a posteriori des informations nouvelles avec le contexte) seraient altérés. Ces processus sont mobilisés lors de la production d’inférences et reflétés par la modulation de la N400 ou de la P600. À l’aide de mesures comportementales et électrophysiologiques, l’objectif de ce travail était de: a) vérifier l’inégale atteinte de ces processus dans la Szt, b) évaluer si ce pattern d’inégale atteinte est observé lors d’une tâche de production d’inférences intentionnelles (PII), c) faciliter la mobilisation des processus altérés par le renforcement du contexte (sémantique, ajout d’un indice social). L’étude réalisée avec un paradigme d’amorçage sémantique en contexte mot confirme l’altération spécifique des processus intégratifs dans la Szt. La suite des études, conduite autour d’une tâche de PII reposant sur les processus prédictifs ou intégratifs dans la SZ et la Szt, montre: 1) des difficultés de PII lorsqu’elle mobilise les processus intégratifs, 2) une réduction de ces difficultés par le renforcement sémantique et 3) que l’ajout d’un indice social pourrait faciliter le traitement du contexte. Ainsi, la PII n’est pas totalement altérée dans la Szt et la SZ. Les études futures devraient considérer cette inégale atteinte des processus en ToM pour aider les patients à attribuer des intentions à autrui. / Theory of mind (ToM) impairments in schizophrenia (SZ) and in schizotypy (Szt) may stem from a context-processing deficit. However, treating the context would involve two types of processes differently affected impacted in SZ: predictive strategy (generation of expectations) would be preserved and integrative strategy (retroactive integration of new information with the context) would be altered. These processes are mobilized during inference generation tasks and reflected by modulations of the N400 and P600 components. Using behavioral and electrophysiological measures, the aim of this thesis was to: (a) confirm the unequal alteration of these processes in the Szt, (b) assess whether this pattern of unequal alteration is observed in intentional inference production tasks (IIP), and (c) facilitate the mobilization of altered processes by increasing the contextual constraints (semantic constraint, contextual reinforcement by social cue). Using a semantic priming task in word context, a first study showed that integrative processes are specifically altered in Szt. Subsequent studies were based on IIP task in which the inference production involved predictive processes or integrative processes. Results showed that: (1) difficulties were observed only when IIP involved integrative processes, (2) semantic constraints decreased these difficulties and (3) context processing may be facilitated by the addition of a social cue. Thus, IIP is not totally altered in Szt and SZ. Future studies should consider this unequal impact of ToM processes to help patients attribute intentions to others.

<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test is a widely used test for measuring aspects of social cognition. The aim of the present study was to provide results from a group of typically developing Swedish children (age 9-12) and to compare these results with children and adults in other Swedish and English studies, as well as results from a group of children with Asperger syndrome. <strong>Method: </strong>A Swedish version of the child version of the test was completed by 83 controls and by six children with Asperger syndrome. Results were compared between the two groups and with data from other studies. <strong>Results: </strong>The children in the current study did not differ on scores compared to children in the same age group in other studies. The children in the current study scored significantly lower than adults in an earlier study. The results from the children with Asperger syndrome did not differ significantly to the results from the controls.</p>