a maternal influence on reading the mind in the eyes mediated by executive function differential parental influences on full and half-siblings母性影响阅读心灵的眼睛由执行功能差父母影响全面的堂表兄弟姐妹.pdfVIP

A Maternal Influence on Reading the Mind in the Eyes Mediated by Executive Function: Differential Parental Influences on Full and Half-Siblings Gillian Ragsdale*, Robert A. Foley Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom Abstract Background: Parent-of-origin effects have been found to influence the mammalian brain and cognition and have been specifically implicated in the development of human social cognition and theory of mind. The experimental design in this study was developed to detect parent-of-origin effects on theory of mind, as measured by the ‘Reading the mind in the eyes’ (Eyes) task. Eyes scores were also entered into a principal components analysis with measures of empathy, social skills and executive function, in order to determine what aspect of theory of mind Eyes is measuring. Methodology/Principal Findings: Maternal and paternal influences on Eyes scores were compared using correlations between pairs of full (70 pairs), maternal (25 pairs) and paternal siblings (15 pairs). Structural equation modelling supported a maternal influence on Eyes scores over the normal range but not low-scoring outliers, and also a sex-specific influence on males acting to decrease male Eyes scores. It was not possible to differentiate between genetic and environmental influences in this particular sample because maternal siblings tended to be raised together while paternal siblings were raised apart. The principal components analysis found Eyes was associated with measures of executive function, principally behavioural inhibition and attention, rather than empathy or social skills. Conclusions/Significance: In conclusion, the results suggest a maternal influence on Eye scores in the normal range and a sex-specific influence acting to reduce scores in males. This