Autism spectrum
Heterogeneous differences in mentalising and social prediction.
Clinical relevance spans autism, schizophrenia, social anxiety, frontotemporal dementia and traumatic brain injury — always within a broader assessment.
Educational neuroscience context only — not medical advice or diagnosis.
Conditions
Schizophrenia-spectrum
Mentalising errors can amplify paranoia and misattribution.
Social anxiety
Threat bias in reading evaluation from faces and audiences.
Frontotemporal dementia
Early loss of social norms and empathy can lead.
TBI / orbitofrontal injury
Disinhibition and poor social value updating.
Prosopagnosia
Identity failure cascades into social awkwardness.
Signs
Literalism in conversation
Missing irony, hinting and indirect requests.
Gaze avoidance or stare
Atypical eye contact patterns under load.
Reputation blindness
Repeated social costs without updating.
Over-mentalising
Seeing hidden plots where none exist.
Empathic distress overwhelm
Self–other boundary collapse under others’ pain.
Care themes
Social skills / mentalising therapies
Structured practice of perspective and cue reading when indicated.
CBT for social anxiety
Challenge threat appraisals of being watched.
Communication accommodations
Clear language and reduced ambiguity help many.
Caregiver education (FTD / TBI)
Reframe “rudeness” as network change.
Seek licensed clinicians for personal symptoms; quizzes are not diagnoses.
Sources & research
- Social cognition in humansConcise map of human social-cognitive processes.DOI
- The social brain: neural basis of social knowledgeSystems overview of the social brain.DOI
- Does the autistic child have a "theory of mind"?Landmark false-belief study in autism research.DOI
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