Aportes al estudio de las relaciones entre memoria episódica y teoría de la mente

Abstract

El presente trabajo indaga las relaciones entre los procesos cognitivos y afectivos de la teoría de la mente y la memoria episódica verbal en mujeres con diagnóstico de Síndrome de Turner. Trastorno cromosómico cuya expresión origina una morfología cerebral atípica que afecta zonas frontales y temporoparietales, coincidentes con el sustrato neuroanatómico compartido por la teoría de la mente y la memoria episódica. La teoría de la mente emerge en el desarrollo con anterioridad a la memoria episódica, posibilitando a través de la capacidad de metarrepresentación el desdoblamiento y viaje mental que la misma implica. Para la evaluación de los procesos se administraron las Historias Extrañas de Happé, el Test de las miradas, el Test de Aprendizaje Verbal España-Complutense y una tarea experimental a 20 mujeres con diagnóstico de Síndrome de Turner y sus respectivos controles. Los resultados indican dificultades en ambos procesos cognitivos y correlaciones entre la teoría de la mente e indicadores de memoria episódica de contenido y de la fuente. Se hipotetiza que la anatomía cerebral atípica, propia de esta población, traería problemas en el desarrollo de la teoría de la mente y esto, a su vez, podría asociarse con dificultades en los mecanismos de metarrepresentación y re-experimentación subjetiva de vivencias que la memoria episódica implica. Los resultados obtenidos permiten una mayor comprensión del perfil neuropsicológico de las mujeres con diagnóstico de Síndrome de Turner y podrían servir de insumo teórico para el diseño de estrategias clínicas y psicoeducativas que tiendan a fomentar, en esta población, las habilidades de teoría de la mente y memoria episódica.

The present study explores the relations between the cognitive and affective processes of theory of mind and verbal episodic memory in women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder caused by a missing or incomplete X chromosome in females. Women with this diagnostic present an typical cerebral morphology affecting frontal and temporoparietal zones. These areas match the neuroanatomic substratum shared by both theory of mind and episodic memory. The concept of theory of mind refers to the ability to anticipate others’ social behavior through the attribution and understanding of mental entities such as desires, beliefs, emotions and intentions. It is a complex skill that involves not only the mental representation of something that cannot be observed directly, but also the decentration of one’s own perspective and the use of these skills to predict behaviors. This ability is composed by two different processes: a cognitive theory of mind that refers to the ability to make inferences about desires, beliefs and intentions of other people; and an affective theory of mind, related to the ability to infer others’ emotions, understanding the affective mental states and adopting the point of view of the other person, without experiencing these emotions. In the particular case of women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome, there is evidence supporting the hypothesis that this population presents general difficulties in this ability, showing a greater deficit in cognitive theory of mind. On the other hand, episodic memory consists of the memory that one has of past experiences. This memory system is a psychological process of paramount importance for human beings, since it enables the remembrance of something that has happened a long time ago. It allows the person to re-experience events that occurred earlier in his or her life, involving the ability to generate meta-representational comments on how knowledge was obtained. This way, people revive, through self-awareness, previous experiences and also project similar experiences to the future. Episodic memory can be divided into the memory about the occurrence of an event (item memory) and the memory of the phenomenological context of the event, which involves the handling of spatial, temporal, emotional and perceptual information (source memory). It is considered that theory of mind has an earlier development than episodic memory, enabling through the capacity of meta-representation the unfolding and mental journey that episodic memory implies. In order to evaluate these processes, a battery of four tests was administered to 20 women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome and their respective controls: Happé Strange Stories, the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, the Spain-Complutense Verbal Learning Test and an experimental task. Results indicate difficulties in both cognitive processes, as well as correlations between theory of mind and indicators of item and source memory. A possible hypothesis could argue that the atypical cerebral anatomy of women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome would result in theory of mind deficits, and these in turn could be associated with difficulties in the capacities of meta-representation and subjective re-experimentation of past events needed by episodic memory. These results enable a better comprehension of the neuropsychological profile of women diagnosed with Turner Syndrome and could serve as a theoretical input for the design of clinical and psychoeducational strategies that tend to promote theory of mind and episodic memory in this population.