NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPAIRMENTS AND DEFICITS IN THEORY OF MIND AND EMOTION RECOGNITION IN A NON-AUTISTIC BOY

A 9-year-old non-autistic boy revealed marked deficits in visuo-spatia l and visuo-motor skills, in planning and organizational capacities an d in impulse inhibition. Particular strengths were his verbal comprehe nsion and reasoning abilities. This neuropsychological pattern of asse ts and deficits fitted the nonverbal learning disability syndrome as d escribed by Rourke (1989). On a battery of Theory of Mind (TOM) and em otion recognition tests he performed rather poor on several first-orde r TOM tasks and on all second-order TOM and emotion-matching tasks, co mpared to samples of autistic and normal subjects. It is suggested tha t his visuo-spatial and cognitive shifting deficits account for his so cial cognitive failures, while his superior verbal skills protect him from severe social handicaps.