Empathic Accuracy in Adolescent Girls with Turner Syndrome

M Klabunde,M Gendron,J Bruno,A L Reiss,A Piccirilli

doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05089-3

Abstract

To examine the potential mechanisms underlying social deficits in Turner Syndrome, we administered the empathic accuracy task (EAT) -a naturalistic social cognition task- and a (control) visual-motor line-tracking task to 14 girls with TS was compared to 12 age-matched typically developing girls (TD; ages 12 to 17). Empathic accuracy was compared across positive and negative emotionally valanced videos. We found that TS differs from TD on empathic accuracy ratings for negative videos; no differences were detected for the positive videos or for the control line tracking task. Thus, our findings suggest impaired detection of negatively valanced empathic interactions in TS and may help inform the future development of social-cognition treatment strategies for girls with TS.

Highlights

Turner syndrome (TS) is a disorder in human females in which part or all of the genetic material from one X-chromosome is absent
One theory attempting to describe the nature of the social deficits seen in girls with TS suggests that theory of mind (TOM) difficulties may be present (Anaki et al, 2016; Hong et al, 2011; Lawrence et al, 2007) and could be underlying their social problems (Lepage et al, 2014)
Empathic accuracy tasks attempt to simulate naturalistic social interactions by having study participants watch a video of a real person telling an emotionally laden personal story

Summary

Introduction

Turner syndrome (TS) is a disorder in human females in which part or all of the genetic material from one X-chromosome is absent. Affect identification deficits were present for targets displaying the emotions sadness and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders disgust (Anaki et al, 2016). One theory attempting to describe the nature of the social deficits seen in girls with TS suggests that theory of mind (TOM) difficulties may be present (Anaki et al, 2016; Hong et al, 2011; Lawrence et al, 2007) and could be underlying their social problems (Lepage et al, 2014). These ratings are compared and provide a measure of empathic accuracy, based on the assumption that the target can report on their own affective state with high fidelity

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion