Reading the mind in the face and voice in parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

• We examined TOM abilities in parents of children with ASD from eyes and tone of voice.
• Impaired mind-reading form voice was found in parents of children with ASD.
• Deficits in mind reading form voice could also be a part of Broad Autism Phenotype.

One core feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is impairment in social functioning and inferring mental states and emotions referred to theory of mind (TOM). The “Broad Autism Phenotype” (BAP) proposes that defining features of autism express in milder form among first degree relatives of these patients. Theory of mind deficits has been examined using advanced TOM tasks such as “Reading the Mind in the Eyes”. This study has furthered previous findings using another test designed to tap higher TOM abilities named “Mind Reading in the Voice”. The objective of this study is to examine theory of mind abilities from two main communicative sources in parents of children with ASD in contrast to two groups, one clinical and one non-clinical. Forty-eight parents of individuals with autism, 31 parents of individuals with Down syndrome and 30 parents of typically developed children were administered two tests of mind-reading. Analysis revealed that although there is not a significant difference between three groups’ performance in “Mind Reading from Eyes”, parents of children with ASD have significantly lower performance in “Mind Reading from Voice”. It can be concluded that TOM deficits in parents of children with ASD are not restricted to inferring mental states form eyes and deficits in mind-reading from voice could also be a part of BAP.