Congenitally blind children perform slightly less accurately on a non-visual behavioral ToM task than sighted children, controlling for age¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Blind children aged 4–12 performed slightly less accurately than sighted children on the non-visual ToM task (group effect controlling for age: b=−0.53, t=−2.2, p=.04). → Richardson H. 2023

Evidence¶

Richardson H. 2023¶

Richardson H., Saxe R., Bedny M. (2023). Neural correlates of theory of mind reasoning in congenitally blind children. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101285

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Behavioral ToM task administered outside the scanner to 12 blind and 21 sighted children aged 4–12. Blind children scored "blind M(SE)=0.70(0.05); sighted M(SE)=0.80(0.04)" with a significant group effect controlling for age. No standardized effect size was printed.

"Blind children performed slightly less accurately than sighted children (blind M(SE)=0.70(0.05); sighted M(SE)=0.80(0.04); effect of group, controlling for age: b=−0.53, t=−2.2, CI=[−1.0,−0.03], p=.04; Fig. 1)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Inter-region correlations within the ToM network are lower in blind children, while ToM and language networks remain functionally distinct — related
• Blind children reason about visually sourced mental states similarly to sighted children — related
• RTPJ selectivity correlates with behavioral ToM task performance across blind and sighted children combined — related
• Blind and sighted children do not differ in performance on false-belief items of the non-visual ToM task — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• The condition-dependent response profile of ToM brain regions is quantitatively weaker in blind than sighted children — related