The ability of humans to predict and explain other people’s behaviour by attributing independent mental states such as desires
and beliefs to them, is considered to be due to our ability to construct a “Theory of Mind”. Recently, several neuroimaging
studies have implicated the medial frontal lobes as playing a critical role in a dedicated “mentalizing” or “Theory of Mind”
network in the human brain. In this study we compare the performance of patients with right and left medial prefrontal lobe
lesions in theory of mind and in social cognition tasks, with the performance of people with schizophrenia.
We report a similar social cognitive profile between patients with prefrontal lobe lesions and schizophrenic subjects in terms
of understanding of false beliefs, in understanding social situations and in using tactical strategies. These findings are
relevant for the functional anatomy of “Theory of Mind”.
Keywords schizophrenia - frontal lobe lesions - Theory of Mind - social cognition