Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Self-Other Distinction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Neural Basis of Mentalizing

Abstract

Social communication depends on our ability to understand others’ emotions, motives, and intentions. In order to understand others’ experiences accurately, we often rely on our own experiences. But, complete reliance on own experiences leads to inaccurate and biased interpretation of others’ behaviors. Therefore, a mechanism which allows to differentiate between our own experiences and thoughts is needed. Self-other distinction is crucial for accurate understanding of others. In the first section of this chapter, we review findings emphasizing the role of self-other distinction across sensory, cognitive, and emotional domains in social communication. We discuss the neurobiological basis for self-other distinction, and how it is affected by stress. Finally, we focus on autism, a condition characterized by difficulties in the social domain. We review findings implicating deficits in self-other distinction in the social communication difficulties typically observed in autism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    It is very difficult to conduct single cell recordings in humans and therefore it is unclear whether the activity is in fact in the same neurons or adjacent neurons within the same general brain area.

References

  • Abu-Akel, A., Palgi, S., Klein, E., Decety, J., & Shamay-Tsoory, S. (2015). Oxytocin increases empathy to pain when adopting the other-but not the self-perspective. Social Neuroscience, 10(1), 7–15.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amodio, D. M., & Frith, C. D. (2006). Meeting of minds: The medial frontal cortex and social cognition. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7(4), 268.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Attwood, T. (2003). Why does Chris do that?: Some suggestions regarding the cause and management of the unusual behaviour of children and adults with autism and Asperger syndrome. Shawnee, KS: AAPC Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baio, J., Wiggins, L., Christensen, D. L., Maenner, M. J., Daniels, J., Warren, Z., … White, T. (2018). Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—Autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 sites, United States, 2014. MMWR Surveillance Summaries, 67(6), 1.

    PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S. (2000). Theory of mind and autism: A review. In International review of research in mental retardation (Vol. 23, pp. 169–184). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S., Bowen, D. C., Holt, R. J., Allison, C., Auyeung, B., Lombardo, M. V., … Lai, M.-C. (2015). The “reading the mind in the eyes” test: Complete absence of typical sex difference in ~400 men and women with autism. PLoS One, 10(8), e0136521.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S., Jolliffe, T., Mortimore, C., & Robertson, M. (1997). Another advanced test of theory of mind: Evidence from very high functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(7), 813–822.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21(1), 37–46.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004). The empathy quotient: An investigation of adults with Asperger syndrome or high functioning autism, and normal sex differences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2), 163–175.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, S. E., Tager-Flusberg, H. E., & Cohen, D. J. (1994). Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism. Paper presented at the Most of the chapters in this book were presented in draft form at a workshop in Seattle, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batson, C. D., Batson, J. G., Griffitt, C. A., Barrientos, S., Brandt, J. R., Sprengelmeyer, P., & Bayly, M. J. (1989). Negative-state relief and the empathy—Altruism hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(6), 922.

    Google Scholar 

  • Batson, C. D., Dyck, J. L., Brandt, J. R., Batson, J. G., Powell, A. L., McMaster, M. R., & Griffitt, C. (1988). Five studies testing two new egoistic alternatives to the empathy-altruism hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(1), 52.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bertenthal, B. I., & Fischer, K. W. (1978). Development of self-recognition in the infant. Developmental Psychology, 14(1), 44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, G., & Viding, E. (2014). The self to other model of empathy: Providing a new framework for understanding empathy impairments in psychopathy, autism, and alexithymia. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 520–532.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler, D. M. (1992). “Theory of Mind” in Asperger’s syndrome Dermot M. Bowler. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33(5), 877–893.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brass, M., & Heyes, C. (2005). Imitation: Is cognitive neuroscience solving the correspondence problem? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(10), 489–495.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brass, M., Ruby, P., & Spengler, S. (2009). Inhibition of imitative behaviour and social cognition. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 364(1528), 2359–2367.

    PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? 30 years later. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12(5), 187–192.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carrillo, M., Han, Y., Migliorati, F., Liu, M., Gazzola, V., & Keysers, C. (2019). Emotional mirror neurons in the rat’s anterior cingulate cortex. Current Biology, 29, 1301.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Carter, A. S., Davis, N. O., Klin, A., & Volkmar, F. R. (2005). Social development in autism. Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, 1, 312–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carter, C. S. (2014). Oxytocin pathways and the evolution of human behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 17–39.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cascio, C. J., Foss-Feig, J. H., Burnette, C. P., Heacock, J. L., & Cosby, A. A. (2012). The rubber hand illusion in children with autism spectrum disorders: Delayed influence of combined tactile and visual input on proprioception. Autism, 16(4), 406–419.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Castiello, U., Becchio, C., Zoia, S., Nelini, C., Sartori, L., Blason, L., … Gallese, V. (2010). Wired to be social: The ontogeny of human interaction. PLoS One, 5(10), e13199. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013199

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Charman, T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1992). Understanding drawings and beliefs: A further test of the meta representation theory of autism: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33(6), 1105–1112.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Colonnello, V., Chen, F. S., Panksepp, J., & Heinrichs, M. (2013). Oxytocin sharpens self-other perceptual boundary. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 38(12), 2996–3002.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • David, N., Gawronski, A., Santos, N. S., Huff, W., Lehnhardt, F.-G., Newen, A., & Vogeley, K. (2008). Dissociation between key processes of social cognition in autism: Impaired mentalizing but intact sense of agency. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(4), 593–605.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Davidov, M., Zahn-Waxler, C., Roth-Hanania, R., & Knafo, A. (2013). Concern for others in the first year of life: Theory, evidence, and avenues for research. Child Development Perspectives, 7, 126–131. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12028

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, G., & McKissick, F. C. (1984). Self-recognition in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 14(4), 383–394.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson, G., Webb, S. J., & McPartland, J. (2005). Understanding the nature of face processing impairment in autism: Insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies. Developmental Neuropsychology, 27(3), 403–424.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Coster, L., Wiersema, J. R., Deschrijver, E., & Brass, M. (2018). The effect of being imitated on empathy for pain in adults with high-functioning autism: Disturbed self–other distinction leads to altered empathic responding. Autism, 22(6), 712–727.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Guzman, M., Bird, G., Banissy, M. J., & Catmur, C. (2016). Self-other control processes in social cognition: From imitation to empathy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 371(1686), 20150079. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0079

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Decety, J., & Lamm, C. (2011). 15 Empathy versus personal distress: Recent evidence from social neuroscience. In The social neuroscience of empathy (pp. 199–213). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Decety, J., & Sommerville, J. A. (2003). Shared representations between self and other: A social cognitive neuroscience view. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(12), 527–533. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2003.10.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Denny, B. T., Kober, H., Wager, T. D., & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). A meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging studies of self-and other judgments reveals a spatial gradient for mentalizing in medial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(8), 1742–1752.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Deschrijver, E., Wiersema, J. R., & Brass, M. (2016). Action-based touch observation in adults with high functioning autism: Can compromised self-other distinction abilities link social and sensory everyday problems? Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 12(2), 273–282.

    PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Dondi, M., Simion, F., & Caltran, G. (1999). Can newborns discriminate between their own cry and the cry of another newborn infant? Developmental Psychology, 35(2), 418.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., & Fabes, R. A. (1990). Empathy: Conceptualization, measurement, and relation to prosocial behavior. Motivation and Emotion, 14(2), 131–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisenberg, N., Fabes, R. A., Miller, P. A., Fultz, J., Shell, R., Mathy, R. M., & Reno, R. R. (1989). Relation of sympathy and personal distress to prosocial behavior: A multimethod study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(1), 55.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrari, M., & Matthews, W. S. (1983). Self-recognition deficits in autism: Syndrome-specific or general developmental delay? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 13(3), 317–324.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fogassi, L., Ferrari, P. F., Gesierich, B., Rozzi, S., Chersi, F., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005). Parietal lobe: From action organization to intention understanding. Science, 308(5722), 662–667.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frith, U. (2001). Mind blindness and the brain in autism. Neuron, 32(6), 969–979.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Frith, U., & Happé, F. (1999). Theory of mind and self-consciousness: What is it like to be autistic? Mind & Language, 14(1), 82–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, M., Burhans, L., Talk, A., & Scalf, P. (2002). Cingulate cortex. Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, 1, 775–791.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallese, V. (2005). Embodied simulation: From neurons to phenomenal experience. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 4(1), 23–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action recognition in the premotor cortex. Brain, 119(2), 593–609.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gallese, V., & Goldman, A. (1998). Mirror neurons and the simulation theory of mind-reading. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(12), 493–501.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez-Liencres, C., Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., & Brüne, M. (2013). Towards a neuroscience of empathy: Ontogeny, phylogeny, brain mechanisms, context and psychopathology. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 37(8), 1537–1548.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, R. M. (1992). The simulation theory: Objections and misconceptions. Mind & Language, 7(1-2), 11–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, A. F. C., Brindley, R. M., & Frith, U. (2007). Imitation and action understanding in autistic spectrum disorders: How valid is the hypothesis of a deficit in the mirror neuron system? Neuropsychologia, 45(8), 1859–1868.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Happé, F. G. (1995). The role of age and verbal ability in the theory of mind task performance of subjects with autism. Child Development, 66(3), 843–855.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heatherton, T. F. (2011). Neuroscience of self and self-regulation. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 363–390.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, R. P. (1990). On the origins of self and the case of autism. Development and Psychopathology, 2(2), 163–181.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, R. P., & Lee, A. (1999). Imitation and identification in autism. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 40(4), 649–659.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Iacoboni, M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology, 60(1), 653–670. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163604

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Iacoboni, M., Koski, L. M., Brass, M., Bekkering, H., Woods, R. P., Dubeau, M.-C., … Rizzolatti, G. (2001). Reafferent copies of imitated actions in the right superior temporal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(24), 13995–13999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iacoboni, M., Molnar-Szakacs, I., Gallese, V., Buccino, G., Mazziotta, J. C., & Rizzolatti, G. (2005). Grasping the intentions of others with one’s own mirror neuron system. PLoS Biology, 3(3), e79.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. The Nervous Child, 2(3), 217–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelley, W. M., Macrae, C. N., Wyland, C. L., Caglar, S., Inati, S., & Heatherton, T. F. (2002). Finding the self? An event-related fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(5), 785–794.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keysar, B., Lin, S., & Barr, D. J. (2003). Limits on theory of mind use in adults. Cognition, 89(1), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(03)00064-7

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keysers, C., & Gazzola, V. (2010). Social neuroscience: Mirror neurons recorded in humans. Current Biology, 20(8), R353–R354.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keysers, C., & Gazzola, V. (2018). Chapter 4 - Neural correlates of empathy in humans, and the need for animal models. In K. Z. Meyza & E. Knapska (Eds.), Neuronal correlates of empathy (pp. 37–52). New York, NY: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilteni, K., Maselli, A., Kording, K. P., & Slater, M. (2015). Over my fake body: Body ownership illusions for studying the multisensory basis of own-body perception. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 141.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lai, M., Lombardo, M., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2014). Autism. Lancet, 383(9920), 896–910.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lai, M.-C., Lombardo, M. V., Chakrabarti, B., Ruigrok, A. N., Bullmore, E. T., Suckling, J., … Baron-Cohen, S. (2019). Neural self-representation in autistic women and association with ‘compensatory camouflaging’. Autism, 23(5), 1210–1223.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lombardo, M. V., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2010). Unraveling the paradox of the autistic self. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 1(3), 393–403.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lombardo, M. V., Chakrabarti, B., Bullmore, E. T., Sadek, S. A., Pasco, G., Wheelwright, S. J., … Baron-Cohen, S. (2010). Atypical neural self-representation in autism. Brain, 133(2), 611–624. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awp306

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marco, E. J., Hinkley, L. B., Hill, S. S., & Nagarajan, S. S. (2011). Sensory processing in autism: A review of neurophysiologic findings. Pediatric Research, 69(5 Pt 2), 48R–54R.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mukamel, R., Ekstrom, A. D., Kaplan, J., Iacoboni, M., & Fried, I. (2010). Single-neuron responses in humans during execution and observation of actions. Current Biology, 20(8), 750–756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.02.045

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neisser, U. (1991). Two perceptually given aspects of the self and their development. Developmental Review, 11(3), 197–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neuman, C. J., & Hill, S. D. (1978). Self-recognition and stimulus preference in autistic children. Developmental Psychobiology: The Journal of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology, 11(6), 571–578.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nishitani, N., & Hari, R. (2000). Temporal dynamics of cortical representation for action. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(2), 913–918.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ochsner, K. N., Knierim, K., Ludlow, D. H., Hanelin, J., Ramachandran, T., Glover, G., & Mackey, S. C. (2004). Reflecting upon feelings: An fMRI study of neural systems supporting the attribution of emotion to self and other. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(10), 1746–1772.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osterling, J. A., Dawson, G., & Munson, J. A. (2002). Early recognition of 1-year-old infants with autism spectrum disorder versus mental retardation. Development and Psychopathology, 14(2), 239–251.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paladino, M.-P., Mazzurega, M., Pavani, F., & Schubert, T. W. (2010). Synchronous multisensory stimulation blurs self-other boundaries. Psychological Science, 21(9), 1202–1207. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610379234

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, C. J., Paton, B., Hohwy, J., & Enticott, P. G. (2013). Movement under uncertainty: The effects of the rubber-hand illusion vary along the nonclinical autism spectrum. Neuropsychologia, 51(10), 1942–1951.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Paton, B., Hohwy, J., & Enticott, P. G. (2012). The rubber hand illusion reveals proprioceptive and sensorimotor differences in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(9), 1870–1883.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Perner, J. (1996). Simulation as explicitation of predication-implicit knowledge about the mind: Arguments for a simulation-theory mix. In Theories of theories of mind (pp. 90–104). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfundmair, M., Rimpel, A., Duffy, K., & Zwarg, C. (2018). Oxytocin blurs the self-other distinction implicitly but not explicitly. Hormones and Behavior, 98, 115–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.12.016

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Preston, S. D., & De Waal, F. B. (2002). Empathy: Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25(1), 1–20.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reniers, R. L., Corcoran, R., Drake, R., Shryane, N. M., & Völlm, B. A. (2011). The QCAE: A questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy. Journal of Personality Assessment, 93(1), 84–95.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richer, J. (2001). The insufficient integration of self and other in autism. In J. M. Richer & S. Coates (Eds.), Autism: The search for coherence in London. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riecansky, I., Lengersdorff, L., Pfabigan, D., & Lamm, C. (2020). Increasing self-other bodily overlap increases sensorimotor resonance to others’ pain. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 20, 19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochat, P., & Striano, T. (2000). Perceived self in infancy. Infant Behavior and Development, 23(3-4), 513–530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, K., Dziobek, I., Hassenstab, J., Wolf, O. T., & Convit, A. (2007). Who cares? Revisiting empathy in Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(4), 709–715.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J. (1999). An examination of the imitation deficit in autism. In J. Nadel & G. Butterworth (Eds.), Cambridge studies in cognitive perceptual development. Imitation in infancy (pp. 254–283). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., Bennetto, L., McEvoy, R., & Pennington, B. F. (1996). Imitation and pantomime in high-functioning adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Child Development, 67(5), 2060–2073.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, S. J., & Pennington, B. F. (1991). A theoretical approach to the deficits in infantile autism. Development and Psychopathology, 3(2), 137–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruissen, M. I., & de Bruijn, E. R. (2015). Is it me or is it you? Behavioral and electrophysiological effects of oxytocin administration on self-other integration during joint task performance. Cortex, 70, 146–154.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz-Mirazo, K., Peretó, J., & Moreno, A. (2004). A universal definition of life: Autonomy and open-ended evolution. Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 34(3), 323–346. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ORIG.0000016440.53346.dc

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sagi, A., & Hoffman, M. L. (1976). Empathic distress in the newborn. Developmental Psychology, 12(2), 175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santiesteban, I., Banissy, M. J., Catmur, C., & Bird, G. (2012). Enhancing social ability by stimulating right temporoparietal junction. Current Biology, 22(23), 2274–2277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.10.018

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Santiesteban, I., White, S., Cook, J., Gilbert, S. J., Heyes, C., & Bird, G. (2012). Training social cognition: From imitation to theory of mind. Cognition, 122(2), 228–235.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shamay-Tsoory, S. G. (2011). The neural bases for empathy. The Neuroscientist, 17(1), 18–24.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shamay-Tsoory, S. G., & Abu-Akel, A. (2016). The social salience hypothesis of oxytocin. Biological Psychiatry, 79(3), 194–202.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Silani, G., Lamm, C., Ruff, C. C., & Singer, T. (2013). Right supramarginal gyrus is crucial to overcome emotional egocentricity bias in social judgments. The Journal of Neuroscience, 33(39), 15466–15476. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.1488-13.2013

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Singer, T., Seymour, B., O’doherty, J., Kaube, H., Dolan, R. J., & Frith, C. D. (2004). Empathy for pain involves the affective but not sensory components of pain. Science, 303(5661), 1157–1162.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. (2006). Cognitive empathy and emotional empathy in human behavior and evolution. The Psychological Record, 56(1), 3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, I. M., & Bryson, S. E. (1994). Imitation and action in autism: A critical review. Psychological Bulletin, 116(2), 259.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spengler, S., Bird, G., & Brass, M. (2010). Hyperimitation of actions is related to reduced understanding of others’ minds in autism spectrum conditions. Biological Psychiatry, 68(12), 1148–1155.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spiker, D., & Ricks, M. (1984). Visual self-recognition in autistic children: Developmental relationships. Child Development, 55, 214–225.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinbeis, N. (2016). The role of self–other distinction in understanding others’ mental and emotional states: Neurocognitive mechanisms in children and adults. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, 371(1686), 20150074. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0074

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Sui, J., Chechlacz, M., Rotshtein, P., & Humphreys, G. W. (2013). Lesion-symptom mapping of self-prioritization in explicit face categorization: Distinguishing hypo-and hyper-self-biases. Cerebral Cortex, 25(2), 374–383.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Symons, C. S., & Johnson, B. T. (1997). The self-reference effect in memory: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 121(3), 371.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, S. E. (2006). Tend and befriend: Biobehavioral bases of affiliation under stress. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(6), 273–277.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thirioux, B., Wehrmann, M., Langbour, N., Jaafari, N., & Berthoz, A. (2016). Identifying oneself with the face of someone else impairs the egocentered visuo-spatial mechanisms: A new double mirror paradigm to study self–other distinction and interaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1283. Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01283

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tomova, L., von Dawans, B., Heinrichs, M., Silani, G., & Lamm, C. (2014). Is stress affecting our ability to tune into others? Evidence for gender differences in the effects of stress on self-other distinction. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 43, 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.02.006

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tong, F., & Nakayama, K. (1999). Robust representations for faces: Evidence from visual search. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 25(4), 1016.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Uddin, L. Q., Davies, M. S., Scott, A. A., Zaidel, E., Bookheimer, S. Y., Iacoboni, M., & Dapretto, M. (2008). Neural basis of self and other representation in autism: An FMRI study of self-face recognition. PLoS One, 3(10), e3526.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Uzefovsky, F., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2018). Role taking. In M. H. Bornstein (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of lifespan human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Uzefovsky, F., Bethlehem, R. A., Shamay-Tsoory, S., Ruigrok, A., Holt, R., Spencer, M., … Bullmore, E. (2019). The oxytocin receptor gene predicts brain activity during an emotion recognition task in autism. Molecular Autism, 10(1), 12.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Uzefovsky, F., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2017). Empathy development throughout the life span. In Social cognition: Development across the life span (pp. 71–97). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Dawans, B., Kirschbaum, C., & Heinrichs, M. (2011). The Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G): A new research tool for controlled simultaneous social stress exposure in a group format. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36(4), 514–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.08.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y., & Hamilton, A. F. C. (2012). Social top-down response modulation (STORM): A model of the control of mimicry in social interaction. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 153.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, H. (1990). The child’s theory of mind. A Bradford Book. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiten, A., & Brown, J. (1998). Imitation and the reading of other minds: Perspectives from the study of autism, normal children and non-human primates. In Intersubjective communication and emotion in early ontogeny (pp. 260–280). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D., & Happé, F. (2009a). Pre-conceptual aspects of self-awareness in autism spectrum disorder: The case of action-monitoring. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(2), 251–259.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. M., & Happé, F. (2009b). What did I say? Versus what did I think? Attributing false beliefs to self amongst children with and without autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39(6), 865–873.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. H., Whiten, A., Suddendorf, T., & Perrett, D. I. (2001). Imitation, mirror neurons and autism. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 25(4), 287–295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yarkoni, T., Poldrack, R. A., Nichols, T. E., Van Essen, D. C., & Wager, T. D. (2011). Large-scale automated synthesis of human functional neuroimaging data. Nature Methods, 8(8), 665.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Yirmiya, N., Erel, O., Shaked, M., & Solomonica-Levi, D. (1998). Meta-analyses comparing theory of mind abilities of individuals with autism, individuals with mental retardation, and normally developing individuals. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 283.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Young, S. K., Fox, N. A., & Zahn-Waxler, C. (1999). The relations between temperament and empathy in 2-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 35(5), 1189.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, W., Yao, S., Li, Q., Geng, Y., Ma, X., Luo, L., … Kendrick, K. M. (2016). Oxytocin blurs the self-other distinction during trait judgments and reduces medial prefrontal cortex responses. Human Brain Mapping, 37(7), 2512–2527.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zwaigenbaum, L., Bryson, S., Rogers, T., Roberts, W., Brian, J., & Szatmari, P. (2005). Behavioral manifestations of autism in the first year of life. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 23(2-3), 143–152.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Tslil Simantov & Florina Uzefovsky

  2. Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Tslil Simantov & Florina Uzefovsky

  3. Italian Institute of Technology, Trento, Italy

    Michael Lombardo

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Simon Baron-Cohen

  5. CLASS Clinic, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK

    Simon Baron-Cohen

Authors
  1. Tslil Simantov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael Lombardo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Simon Baron-Cohen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Florina Uzefovsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Florina Uzefovsky .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

    Michael Gilead

  2. Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Kevin N. Ochsner

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Simantov, T., Lombardo, M., Baron-Cohen, S., Uzefovsky, F. (2021). Self-Other Distinction. In: Gilead, M., Ochsner, K.N. (eds) The Neural Basis of Mentalizing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51890-5_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation