Abstract
Impaired social functioning is a well-known outcome of individuals with agenesis of the corpus callosum. Social deficits in nonliteral language comprehension, humor, social reasoning, and recognition of facial expression have all been documented in adults with agenesis of the corpus callosum. In the present study, we examined the emotional and mentalizing deficits that contributing to the social-cognitive development in children with isolated corpus callosum agenesia, including emotion recognition, theory of mind, executive function, working memory, and behavioral impairments as assessed by the parents. The study involved children between the age of 6 and 8 years along with typically developing children who were matched by IQ, age, gender, education, and caregiver's education. The findings indicated that children with agenesis of the corpus callosum exhibited mild impairments in all social factors (recognizing emotions, understanding theory of mind), and showed more behavioral problems than control children. Taken together, these findings suggest that reduced callosal connectivity may contribute to the development of higher-order social-cognitive deficits, involving limits of complex and rapidly occurring social information to be processed. The studies of AgCC shed lights of the role of structural connectivity across the hemispheres in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Highlights
Agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) is a common cerebral malformation resulting from a failure to develop fibers that provide the largest connective tract between the two hemispheres
In order to provide evidence to clarify the role of the corpus callosum, regarding the nature of understanding others’ mind, we investigated the main socio-emotional and cognitive functions in a group of children with isolated AgCC
The findings of the present study are in line with previous studies showing typical mild social cognitive impairments in individuals with AgCC, even in childhood
Summary
Agenesis of the corpus callosum (AgCC) is a common cerebral malformation resulting from a failure to develop fibers that provide the largest connective tract between the two hemispheres. The corpus callosum consists of over 200 million axons that transfer information between the two hemispheres. Callosal anomalies are the most frequent malformations in the brain, with imaging studies indicating that AgCC occurs in 1:4000 live births (Wang et al, 2004; Glass et al, 2008), and 3–5% of neurodevelopmental disorders involve callosal malformation (Bodensteiner et al, 1994). The developmental absence (agenesis) of the corpus callosum can occur in a variety of conditions that disrupt the early development of the callosal fibers. AgCC can encompass either total or partial absence of the corpus callous, as well as hypoplasia (formation of a thinner than expected corpus callosum). The comparison of partial and total agenesis of the corpus callosum showed only slight differences
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