Abstract
BackgroundMany patients with brain tumours exhibit mild to severe (neuro)cognitive impairments at some point during the course of the disease. Social cognition, as an instance of higher-order cognitive functioning, specifically enables initiation and maintenance of appropriate social interactions. For individuals being confronted with the diagnosis of a brain tumour, impairment of social function represents an additional burden, since those patients deeply depend on support and empathy provided by family, friends and caregivers.MethodsThe present study explores the scientific landscape on (socio)cognitive functioning in brain tumour patients by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer. The Web of Science Core Collection database was examined to identify relevant documents published between 1945 and 2019.ResultsA total of 664 English titles on (socio)cognitive functions in patients with brain tumours was retrieved. Automated textual analysis revealed that the data available so far focus on three major topics in brain tumour patients: cognitive functions in general and in paediatric cases, as well as psychological factors and their influence on quality of life. The focus of research has gradually moved from clinical studies with cognitive functions as one of the outcome measures to investigations of interactions between cognitive functions and psychological constructs such as anxiety, depression or fatigue. Medical, neurological and neuropsychological journals, in particular neuro-oncological journals published most of the relevant articles authored by a relatively small network of well interconnected researchers in the field.ConclusionThe bibliometric analysis highlights the necessity of more research on social cognition in brain tumour patients.
Highlights
Various cognitive subprocesses, such as attention, memory and executive functions, mediate our performance in occupational, social and everyday life and affect participation andUwe Schlegel and Patrizia Thoma contributed to this work.In recent years, social cognition, as an instance of higherorder cognitive functioning, has sparked some interest in the neuro-oncological community
This is true for those diagnosed with grade I–III gliomas according to the classification of the World Health Organization (WHO) as these typically affect young adults with an anticipated survival of many years [19]
Search terms were defined based on which cognitive domains appear to be most consistently affected in brain tumour patients based on previous literature [11, 19,20,21,22] as well as on which subprocesses of social cognition are relevant in highly demanding life situations like diagnosis and treatment of a brain tumour
Summary
Social cognition, as an instance of higherorder cognitive functioning, has sparked some interest in the neuro-oncological community. Impairments of sociocognitive functions, due to treatment and/or the brain tumour itself, might contribute to social isolation and shrinking social networks [15,16,17] which is disastrous as social support is crucial to protect people in highly demanding life situations from pathological distress [18]. Both cognitive and sociocognitive functions are of particular relevance for patients with brain tumours. For individuals being confronted with the diagnosis of a brain tumour, impairment of social function represents an additional burden, since those patients deeply depend on support and empathy provided by family, friends and caregivers
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