Disorders of social cognitive functions in patients after stroke

Abstract

Social cognitive functions used to encode and decode social information, and are critical for people to understand themselves and others, as well as the norms and procedures of the social world. They could be subdivided into theory of mind, social perception, affective empathy and social behavior. From neuroanatomical viewpoint disorders of social cognitive functions are related to the dysfunction of the certain areas of frontal and temporal lobes of the brain and their connections. In contrast to psychiatric disorders social cognitive deficit is heterogeneous in its nature and depends on the lesion location. Disorders of theory of mind, social perception and social behavior significantly more often are seen in patients after stroke than in healthy people. Social cognitive deficit has a negative effect on the outcome of stroke. More research is needed in this area.