Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to attribute subjective mental states to oneself and others and is significantly impaired in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A frontal-posterior network of regions including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) is involved in ToM. Previous studies show an underactivation of these regions in ASD. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation method for causally investigating brain-behavior relationships via induction of cortical excitability alterations. tDCS, mostly over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, has been increasingly applied for improving behavioral problems in ASD leaving other potentially interesting regions untouched. Here we investigated contribution of the vmPFC and right TPJ in ToM abilities of ASD children via tDCS in a pilot study. Sixteen children with ASD (mean age = 10.7 ± 1.9) underwent three tDCS sessions (1 mA, 20 min) in a randomized, sham-controlled design. Stimulation protocols included: (a) anodal vmPFC tDCS, (b) anodal r-TPJ tDCS, and (c) sham tDCS. ToM abilities were explored during tDCS using the theory of mind test (TOMT). Our results show that activation of the vmPFC with anodal tDCS significantly improved ToM in children with ASD compared with both, r-TPJ tDCS, and sham stimulation. Specifically, precursors of ToM (e.g., emotion recognition, perception, and imitation) and elementary ToM skills (e.g., first-order mental state reasoning) were significantly improved by anodal vmPFC tDCS. Based on these results, the vmPFC could be a potential target region for the reduction of ASD symptoms via noninvasive brain stimulation, which should be examined in larger detail in future studies.

中文翻译：

---

右侧颞顶交界处和腹内侧前额叶皮层对自闭症心理理论的贡献：一项随机、假控制的 tDCS 研究

心理理论 (ToM) 是将主观心理状态归因于自己和他人的能力，在自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 中显着受损。ToM 涉及包括腹内侧前额叶皮层 (vmPFC) 和颞顶交界处 (TPJ) 在内的额-后区域网络。以前的研究表明 ASD 中这些区域的激活不足。经颅直流电刺激 (tDCS) 是一种非侵入性脑刺激方法，用于通过诱导皮质兴奋性改变来因果调查脑行为关系。tDCS，主要是在背外侧前额叶皮层，已越来越多地应用于改善 ASD 的行为问题，而其他潜在的有趣区域却没有受到影响。在这里，我们在一项试点研究中通过 tDCS 调查了 vmPFC 和右侧 TPJ 对 ASD 儿童 ToM 能力的贡献。16 名 ASD 儿童（平均年龄 = 10.7 ± 1.9）在随机、假手术对照设计中接受了 3 次 tDCS 治疗（1 mA，20 分钟）。刺激协议包括：（a）阳极 vmPFC tDCS，（b）阳极 r-TPJ tDCS，和（c）假 tDCS。在 tDCS 期间使用心理测试理论 (TOMT) 探索了 ToM 能力。我们的结果表明，与 r-TPJ tDCS 和假刺激相比，用阳极 tDCS 激活 vmPFC 显着改善了 ASD 儿童的 ToM。具体而言，阳极 vmPFC tDCS 显着改善了 ToM（例如，情绪识别、感知和模仿）和基本 ToM 技能（例如，一阶心理状态推理）的前兆。基于这些结果，