Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating event for individuals, who frequently develop motor and sensory impairment as well as autonomic dysfunction. Previous studies reported that autonomic activity plays a major role in social cognition and that difficulties in the ability to interpret social information are commonly observed in a variety of mental disorders, which in turn correlate with a poor autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulation. It is well established that subjects with SCI have an alteration in ANS regulation mechanisms. We hypothesized that subjects diagnosed with SCI, who are experiencing a period of adaptation and socio-labor insertion suffer alterations in an emotion recognition task, a component of social cognition, which correlate with poor ANS regulation. We evaluated ANS function by measuring the heart rate variability (HRV) in 18 healthy subjects and 10 subjects with SCI. A 5-min baseline HRV was compared to a task period while performing The reading the mind in the eyes test (RMET). We found that while both groups have similar general performance in the test, healthy subjects responded with greater certainty during the RMET. This level of certainty during the RMET was positively correlated with baseline HRV measures in this group. Also, the group of healthy subjects exhibited higher HRV at baseline than participants with SCI. Finally, the changes in HRV between baseline and task condition were significantly higher in healthy individuals than in SCI participants. Our results show that patients with SCI have low levels of autonomic regulation mechanisms which may promote social cognition problems during their reinsertion to daily life.
Highlights
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating event that results in disturbances to normal sensory, motor, or autonomic function
To assess the existence of differences in performance during the reading the mind in the eyes test (RMET) between the group of healthy subjects and the group of persons with SCI, we computed the percentage of correct answers as well as the percentage of answers provided with a high level of certainty
We found no significant differences in the number of correct answers between the two groups during RMET (p = 0.086)
Summary
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating event that results in disturbances to normal sensory, motor, or autonomic function. The pathophysiology of SCI in acute stages (Dietz, 2010), the impact of different types of therapies with stem cell transplantation (Valenzuela et al, 2012), and the role of physical therapy in rehabilitation of people with SCI (Angeli et al, 2014) have been the subject topics of great interest in the last years While these lines of research have contributed significantly to optimize the processes of rehabilitation related with impairment and activity limitations of people with SCI, other aspects of research related to social cognition and social participation have been less investigated. It has been reported that mood disorders in people with SCI are associated, in turn, with a variety of poorer outcomes including increased hospitalization periods, and secondary medical conditions, as well as decreased social integration quality of life, and self-care dependency (Munce et al, 2015)
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