{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T17:44:11Z","timestamp":1788284651061,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,21]],"date-time":"2021-05-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1621555200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Autism Research"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2021,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:label\/>\n                    <jats:p>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\u2010posterior 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\u2010behavior 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\u00a0=\u00a010.7\u00a0\u00b1\u20091.9) underwent three tDCS sessions (1\u00a0mA, 20\u2009min) in a randomized, sham\u2010controlled design. Stimulation protocols included: (a) anodal vmPFC tDCS, (b) anodal r\u2010TPJ 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\u2010TPJ tDCS, and sham stimulation. Specifically, precursors of ToM (e.g., emotion recognition, perception, and imitation) and elementary ToM skills (e.g., first\u2010order 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.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Lay Summary<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to infer mental states of oneself and others, which is impaired in autism. Brain imaging studies have shown involvement of two brain regions in ToM (ventromedial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction) which are underactivated in autism. We increased activation of these regions via noninvasive brain stimulation in this experiment to see how it would affect ToM abilities in autism. We found that increased activation of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex improved ToM abilities in children with autism.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1002\/aur.2538","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,21]],"date-time":"2021-05-21T04:10:48Z","timestamp":1621570248000},"page":"1572-1584","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":45,"title":["Contribution of the right temporoparietal junction and ventromedial prefrontal cortex to theory of mind in autism: A randomized, sham\u2010controlled\n                    <scp>tDCS<\/scp>\n                    study"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1913-4677","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohammad Ali","family":"Salehinejad","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors Department of Psychology and Neurosciences  Dortmund Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nasim","family":"Paknia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rehabilitation Counseling University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science  Tehran Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amir Hossein","family":"Hosseinpour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Rehabilitation Counseling University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Science  Tehran Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fatemeh","family":"Yavari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors Department of Psychology and Neurosciences  Dortmund Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carmelo M.","family":"Vicario","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Dipartimento di Scienze Cognitive, Psicologiche, Pedagogiche e degli studi culturali Universita' di Messina  Messina Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael A.","family":"Nitsche","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors Department of Psychology and Neurosciences  Dortmund Germany"},{"name":"University Medical Hospital Bergmannsheil Department of Neurology  Bochum Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vahid","family":"Nejati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology Shahid Beheshti University  Tehran Iran"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,21]]},"reference":[{"issue":"2","key":"e_1_2_10_2_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"The role of theory of mind and executive function in predicting empathy","volume":"15","author":"Aliakbari M.","year":"2013","journal-title":"Advances in Cognitive 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