Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Previous research has shown that Autobiographical Memory (AM), the ability to recall past personal events, and theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer the current thoughts and feelings of other people are supported by a common network of brain regions. More recent research, however, indicates that the areas of the brain responsible for these abilities may be dissociated. For example, it has been shown that people who have severe AM impairment still maintain the ability to infer the thoughts and feelings of others, thus they have intact ToM. It remains unclear if the reverse is true, if those with ToM deficits also exhibit AM impairment. More specifically, we would like to investigate if there is a link between the capacity to understand the thoughts and feelings of others and the ability to re-experience emotions of past personal memories. Is ToM ability necessary for the capacity to make mental state attributions in AMs? To answer this question we will test patients with focal lesions in areas implicated in ToM on a battery of tests which are sensitive to ToM impairment. Patients will also be assessed on the Autobiographical Interview (AI), which uses a sensitive scoring procedure that specifically takes into account the attribution of mental states. The performance of patients on both ToM tests and the AI will be compared with demographically matched controls. Findings will have implications in the detection of ToM and AM deficits, and will further clarify the cognitive and social consequences associated with damage to these brain regions. Results from this research will also guide the development of rehabilitation practices and provide the tools necessary for people with such deficits to continue leading independent and productive lives.