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Theory of Mind - how to explain it

My thought process is that NT's have way more social conditioning then we do, therefore are high in tune with reading and mentalizing in most situations. We are busy internalizing, focusing on environmental stimuli and focusing too much on their tone and words used because it's part of our stimuli instead of *reading less* into the overall message. We take in all the external cues and have way less social experience and all of this creates a wormhole that doesn't end. I would like to dub this Austitic social wormhole. lol

It's not surprising that we feel drained and continually lost in social interaction. l try to step back and shut off some of the external markers, focus on words, and their mood that they are portraying. This seems to be more fail proof. But sometimes l do mess up. But you fall off the bike and get back on.

The actual covid mask l wear at work is harder for me. Because l have to think very carefully about word selection because l can no longer use my expressions to convey my message in the scheme of things.
 
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according to a questionaire i wasn't allowed to fill out on my own (the professional did it based on verbal answers from my mom)

i scored low on Theory of Mind stuff (and literally everything else) therefore i could impossibly be autistic
 
Another article on this topic from

Theory of mind | Spectrum | Autism Research News

Theory of mind
Theory of mind refers to the ability to understand the desires, intentions and beliefs of others, and is a skill that develops between 3 and 5 years of age in typically developing children. This is test revision.

Relevance to autism:
Theory of mind is impaired in people with autism. One of the earliest tests for theory of mind is the false-belief test developed by Simon Baron-Cohen and Uta Frith1. In the classic version of the test, a little girl named Sally puts a ball into a basket and goes out for a walk. While she is away, another little girl named Anne takes the ball out of the basket and puts it into a box. When Sally comes back, she wants to play with the ball. Where, the children are asked, will Sally look for the ball? ‘In the box,’ children with autism answer, unable to imagine that Sally might be operating under a false belief.

In 1985, Baron-Cohen, Frith and Alan Leslie reported that children with autism systematically fail the false-belief test. Children with Down syndrome pass the test, despite having lower intelligence quotients than those with autism2. The researchers concluded that autism leads to a delay in the development of theory of mind, and that people with autism have difficulty understanding the mental states of others.

However, researchers stress that it is important to distinguish false-belief tasks, which rely on language, from full-fledged theory of mind, which is more deeply impaired in people with autism.

Some children and adults with autism can pass false-belief tests, for example. But they show more difficulty with theory of mind tasks that do not allow them to reason through a problem. For example, a 2011 study reported that highly intelligent young adults with autism express tend not to weigh intention and outcome when engaged in moral reasoning3.

A 2009 eye tracking study showed that adults with Asperger syndrome seem to compute theory of mind differently than healthy people do4.

Other studies have pointed to a biological basis for impaired theory of mind in people with autism5,6. Finally, much research suggests that different aspects of language are important for developing theory of mind7. These include communication in social contexts, such as between mother and child or in peer interactions, knowledge of words and concepts referring to mental states and complex grammar, especially sentence structures used to express mental states.



References:
  1. Baron-Cohen S. et al. Cognition 21, 37-46 (1985) PubMed
  2. Tager-Flusberg H. Child Dev. 63, 161-172 (1992) PubMed
  3. Moran J. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 108, 2688-2692 (2011) PubMed
  4. Senju A. et al. Science 325, 883-885 (2009) PubMed
  5. Saxe R. and N. Kanwisher Neuroimage 19, 1835-1842 (2003) PubMed
  6. Kana R.K. et al. Soc. Neurosci. 4, 135-152 (2009) PubMed
  7. Astington J. and J. Baird (Eds.) Why language matters for theory of mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2005)
 
Imagine thinking your neurology is so special that anyone who won't project themselves on you is considered "unhealthy".
 
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