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By around the age of 4 years, children "can work out what people might know, think or believe" based on what they say or do. This is called "mindreading," which builds upon the human ability to infer the intentions of others. Game theory makes a strong assumption about what individual A can expect about B's intentions and vice versa, viz. that each is a self-interested opponent of the other and will reliably analyze games by using such basic principles as dominance and backward induction, and behave as if the normal form of an extensive form game is equivalent to the latter. But the extensive form allows intentions to be detected from actual sequential play and is therefore not necessarily equivalent psychologically to the normal form. We discuss Baron-Cohen's theory of the mindreading system [Baron-Cohen, S. (1995) Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA)] to motivate the comparison of behavior in an extensive form game with its corresponding normal form. As in the work of Rapoport [Rapoport, A. (1997) Int. J. Game Theory 26, 113-136] and Schotter et al. [Schotter, A., Wiegelt, K. & Wilson, C. (1994) Games Econ. Behav. 6, 445-468], we find consistent differences in behavior between the normal and extensive forms. In particular, we observe attempts to cooperate, and in some treatments we observe the achievement of cooperation, occurring more frequently in the extensive form. Cooperation in this context requires reciprocity, which is more difficult to achieve by means of intentionality detection in the normal as opposed to the extensive form games we study.
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PMID:Intentionality detection and "mindreading": why does game form matter? 1076 Mar 6

Baron-Cohen [Mindblindness: an essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997] has suggested that the interpretation of gaze plays an important role in a normal functioning theory of mind (ToM) system. Consistent with this suggestion, functional imaging research has shown that both ToM tasks and eye gaze processing engage a similar region of the posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). However, a second brain region associated with ToM, the medial prefrontal (MPF) cortex, has not been identified by previous eye gaze studies. We discuss the methodological issues that may account for the absence of MPF activation in these experiments and present a PET study that controls for these factors. Our experiment included three conditions in which the proportions of faces gazing at, and away from, the participant, were as follows: 100% direct [0% averted], 50% direct-50% averted, and 100% horizontally averted [0% direct]. Two control conditions were also included in which the faces' gaze were averted down, or their eyes were closed. Contrasts comparing the gaze conditions with each of the control conditions revealed medial frontal involvement. Parametric analyses showed a significant linear relationship between increasing proportions of horizontally averted gaze and increased rCBF in the MPF cortex. The opposite parametric analysis (increasing proportions of direct gaze) was associated with increased rCBF in a number of areas including the superior and medial temporal gyri. Additional subtraction contrasts largely confirmed these patterns. Our results demonstrate a considerable degree of overlap between the medial frontal areas involved in eye gaze processing and theory of mind tasks.
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PMID:Reading the mind from eye gaze. 1193 17

This article highlights the overlapping and converging goals and challenges of autism research and affective computing. We propose that a collaboration between autism research and affective computing could lead to several mutually beneficial outcomes--from developing new tools to assist people with autism in understanding and operating in the socioemotional world around them, to developing new computational models and theories that will enable technology to be modified to provide an overall better socioemotional experience to all people who use it. This article describes work toward this convergence at the MIT Media Lab, and anticipates new research that might arise from the interaction between research into autism, technology, and human socioemotional intelligence.
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PMID:Affective computing and autism. 1731 61

Neuroimaging and lesion studies suggest that the superior temporal sulcus (STS) region is involved in eye gaze processing. Hence, the STS region is suggested to be the location of the "eye-direction detector", a key element in the "mindreading model" proposed by Baron-Cohen [Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press]. Not only the eyes, but also a pointing finger of another person can inform us about the direction of attention of the other one. In an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, healthy human subjects actively followed a directional cue provided either by the eyes or, alternatively, the pointing finger of another person to make an eye movement toward an object in space. Our results show clearly that the posterior STS region is equally involved in processing directional information from either source. The only difference between the two cues was found in the lingual gyrus, in which a stronger blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) response was observed during the finger pointing compared to the gaze following task. We suggest that different structures might be involved in the initial processing of directional information coming from the eyes or the pointing finger. These different streams of information may then converge in the posterior STS region, orchestrating the usage of a wider range of socially relevant directional cues able to inform us about the direction of attention and the intentions of another person.
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PMID:The posterior superior temporal sulcus is involved in social communication not specific for the eyes. 1858 42

Robotics has traditionally focused on developing intelligent machines that can manipulate and interact with objects. The promise of personal robots, however, challenges researchers to develop socially intelligent robots that can collaborate with people to do things. In the future, robots are envisioned to assist people with a wide range of activities such as domestic chores, helping elders to live independently longer, serving a therapeutic role to help children with autism, assisting people undergoing physical rehabilitation and much more. Many of these activities shall require robots to learn new tasks, skills and individual preferences while 'on the job' from people with little expertise in the underlying technology. This paper identifies four key challenges in developing social robots that can learn from natural interpersonal interaction. The author highlights the important role that expressive behaviour plays in this process, drawing on examples from the past 8 years of her research group, the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab.
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PMID:Role of expressive behaviour for robots that learn from people. 1988 47