TL;DR: A 2026 study in PLOS Computational Biology found that people overestimated an opponent’s competitiveness after betrayal, especially when they chose to watch the opponent instead of controlling their own avatar. Key Findings 62-person social task: 62 adults played a 2D prey-pursuit game with a computerized opponent whose hidden friendliness changed over time. Betrayal shifted …
TL;DR: A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that nonverbal Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to infer another person’s beliefs or perspective, varied in 44 adults with post-stroke aphasia and was more closely tied to vascular brain-health markers than to aphasia severity. Key Findings Study group: 44 adults with aphasia after mostly left-hemisphere stroke completed 2 …
TL;DR: A 2026 Communications Biology fMRI study found that language and theory of mind, the ability to infer other people’s mental states, were already neurally distinct in children aged 3-9 rather than slowly separating during development. Key Findings Children show distinct neural specificity for language and theory of mind in superior temporal lobe — just …
A study found that certain genetic variations in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) were associated with different aspects of social understanding abilities in children with and without autism. Highlights: In typically developing children, one genetic variation (rs2268498) was linked to better verbal social understanding skills. In children with autism, a different genetic variation (rs53576) was …
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex mental health condition characterized by difficulties with emotional regulation, impulsivity, and unstable relationships. A key feature of BPD is impaired empathy, which contributes to the interpersonal dysfunction seen in these patients. A new review analyzes 45 studies on empathy and related constructs like theory of mind in BPD, …
