If we revisit our mysterious patients with granular prefrontal damage and test them for theory-of-mind tasks, we begin to see a common theme emerge from their seemingly disparate, subtle, and bizarre symptoms. Such patients are worse at solving false-belief tests like the Sally-Ann test; they are much worse at recognizing emotions in other people; they struggle to empathize with other people’s emotions, struggle to distinguish lies from jokes, struggle to identify a faux pas that would offend someone, struggle to take someone else’s visual perspective, and struggle to deceive others.
