Theory of mind in mild traumatic brain injury

Theory of mind (ToM) or the ability to think about other people's mental states to understand and predict others' behaviour is a part of social cognition. The social and communicative impairment is a natural consequence of ToM deficit. Those who have sustained a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) have been found to demonstrate difficulties in everyday social interactions and communications. The presence of these difficulties, which are thought to be associated with ToM deficits, raises the question of whether patients with TBI have impairment in ToM. The present study investigates ToM in eight adult subjects with frontal lobe damage, following mild TBI across first and second order tasks of ToM in Malayalam. The results add to the growing evidence that more attention should be focused on employing additional tests of ToM during evaluation and address these deficits during the management of communication and social deficits.