Social Genomics: Relationships between theory of mind and karyotype in women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome
Genómica Social: Relaciones entre teoría de la mente y cariotipo en mujeres con diagnóstico de Síndrome de Turner
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Introduction: Theory of mind refers to the cognitive ability to attribute mind to others, and to predict and understand their behavior in terms of mental entities such as beliefs, desires and intentions. Recent research suggests a distinction between an affective and a cognitive theory of mind, assigning a specific neuroanatomical substrate to each one. Turner Syndrome is a genetic disorder that only affects women, and it’s determined by a partial or complete deletion of the X-chromosome. Given the biological, psychological and social characteristics found in these women, they can be considered as a relevant population for the study of theory of mind according to biological parameters such as differential expression of the X-chromosome genes. Aims and methods: The aims of this study were to describe cognitive and affective theory of mind in 22 women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome and to determine if there are distinctive theory of mind profiles depending on the karyotype. Results and discussion: Results indicated that women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome present general difficulties in theory of mind, showing a lower performance on the cognitive aspect of this ability. Additionally, evidence was found suggesting that a greater genetic damage is related to greater difficulties in cognitive theory of mind, which is linked to cortical areas of non-automatic processing.