Areas Of Social Cognition Research Articles

Acute effects of intranasal ocytocin on affective empathy of patients with refractory schizophrenia and healthy controls: results of a randomized clinical trial

IntroductionOxytocin (OXT) is a neuropeptide associated with social behavior and the modulation of neural circuits related to social cognition and emotion regulation. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that causes impairment in different areas of social cognition, including empathy. A systematic review of the literature showed positive effects of exogenous administration of this hormone on the empathy of individuals without psychopathology, especially in the affective domain. Studies on the effect of OXT on empathy in patients with schizophrenia are very limited, being restricted to the cognitive domain.ations must be overcome in future studies. The effects associated with chronic use of the hormone should be the subject of future studies.Objectivesto evaluate the effect of a single dose of intranasal OXT (24UI) on affective empathy in individuals with refractory schizophrenia and healthy controls.Methodsa double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted. A convenience sample of 51 adult men (mean age 34.4 ± 7.6, >10 years of education) was recruited, 20 of whom were diagnosed with refractory schizophrenia according to the DSM-5 (exclusively using clozapine or clozapine + mood stabilizer and/or benzodiazepine) and 31 healthy controls. They were randomized into four groups and received OXT or placebo (PLA – vehicle: SCH-OXT (N=11), SHC-PLA (N=9), HC-OXT (N=15), HC-PLA (N= 16)). Before and after 50 minutes of administering the substance, they performed an affective empathy task (Multifaceted Emphaty Test – MET).Resultsthe baseline levels of affective empathy of patients with schizophrenia were lower compared to healthy controls when faced with negative stimuli (p=0.003), but not positive ones (p=0.39). After the administration of OXT and PLA (post-pre), a small increase in empathy levels was observed in all groups, which did not reach statistical significance (positive stimuli: ΔSCH-OXT = 0.16±1.08; ΔSHC-PLA= 0.53±1.44, ΔHC-OXT= 0.02±0.67, ΔHC-PLA= 0.24±0.45, p=0.85; negative stimuli: ΔSCH-OXT = 0.20±1.31; ΔSHC-PLA= 1.16±0.79, ΔHC-OXT= 0.12±0.99, ΔHC-PLA= 0.31±0.57, p=0.11).Conclusionsthe acute effects of intranasal OXT did not favor improvements in the levels of affective empathy, either in patients with schizophrenia or in healthy controls, contrary to the hypotheses of this study. The limited sample size and context-dependent aspects of OXT may explain these findings. These methodological limitations must be overcome in future studies. The effects associated with chronic use of the hormone should be the subject of future studies.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

The Neural Substrate of Speech Act Recognition

Pragmatic competence demands linguistic, but also communicative, social and cognitive competence. Successful use of language in social interaction requires mutual understanding of the speaker’s intentions; without it, a conversation cannot proceed. The term speech act refers to what a speaker intends to accomplish when saying something. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the identification of the neural substrate of speech act recognition and to the characterization of the cognitive processes that may be involved. The recognition of speech acts resulted in greater activation of frontal regions, precuneus and posterior cingulate gyrus. From all cognitive and behavioral measures obtained, only the scores in mental flexibility predicted the change in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in the precuneus. These results, support the idea that speech act recognition requires the inference of intention, executive functions, including memory and entails the activation of areas of social cognition that participate in several brain networks i.e., the Intention Processing, the Default Mode and Theory of Mind networks, and areas involved in planning and guiding behavior.

Socio-cognitive processing in people with eating disorders: Computerized tests of mentalizing, empathy and imitation skills.

ObjectiveEating disorders are psychiatric illnesses characterized by extreme eating behaviors, such as sustained food restriction or loss of control over eating. Symptoms are thought to be maintained by a variety of mechanisms, one of which may be the socio‐cognitive impairments associated with eating disorders. While some previous work has addressed socio‐cognitive impairments in eating disorders, this work has relied mostly on self‐report data.MethodHere we employed computerized tests of (a) mentalizing (ability to infer the mental states of others); (b) empathy (the degree to which the emotional states of others can be identified and the degree to which the states of others impact one's own emotional state); and (c) imitation (the degree to which observation of another's actions prompts the performance of those actions); in a group of 78 women with an eating disorder and a matched control group of 66 healthy women.ResultsPeople with eating disorders showed both hyper‐ and hypo‐mentalizing and reduced accuracy of emotional and cognitive mental state inference. They displayed less imitation of observed actions, but no differences in empathy compared to healthy controls. Although anxiety and depressive symptoms had significant effects on mentalizing, most of the observed inter‐group differences persisted.DiscussionWomen with eating disorders have difficulties mentalizing and imitating observed actions despite intact non‐social automatic imitation, compared to healthy controls. These findings provide an indication that intervention modules to strengthen specific areas of social cognition might be helpful to improve patients' social skills.

Self-other referential neural processing in social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder

BackgroundSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are highly comorbid and share impairments in self-referential and social processing. Many naturalistic judgements activate these processes concurrently, which can be referred to as “self-other referential processing”. We sought to examine its neural correlates in young people with SAD and MDD using a novel experimental task. MethodsFifty six young people aged 16 to 25 with diagnoses of SAD and/or MDD (15 with SAD [M = 20.3 years, 60% female], 17 with MDD [M = 19.8 years, 53% female], 24 with comorbid SAD and MDD [M = 19.8 years, 67% female]) and 76 age and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs; M = 20.7 years, 66% female) completed a novel self-other referential processing fMRI task that involved rating how much one related to emotional faces in active conditions and judging how far apart each person’s eyes were in control conditions. ResultsParticipants with SAD had more and those with MDD had less activity in social cognitive areas than HCs when processing social information across all conditions and emotion types. Participants with comorbid SAD-MDD exhibited a distinct pattern of neural activity to patients with single diagnoses. Across the whole sample, the activation of reward system areas (the medial orbitofrontal cortex and caudate) in response to increasing relatedness correlated positively with a dimensional measure of social anxiety. ConclusionsYoung people with SAD, MDD and comorbid SAD-MDD showed deficits in social processing, but they were not specifically related to self-other referential processing. Dimensional social anxiety symptoms were correlated with reward system activation, suggesting that such symptoms are associated with an overestimation of the hedonic value of social stimuli. These novel findings have implications for our understanding of the neural correlates of SAD and MDD, suggesting that alterations in social processing and reward functioning underlie the impairments in self and social processing that characterize both disorders.

Priming Matrix – Collective Nonconscious Programming

Contemporary sociology, and especially social psychology, explores the mechanisms of priming, automaticity, and their effects on social behavior. Priming matrix is a new concept, a phrase semantically coined by the author in order to explain such complex socio-psychological phenomena in the area of social cognition. This study makes an analyses and description of the dynamics and mechanisms of the programming from a socio-psychological aspect, Transactional analysis, and the perspective of Christian psychotherapy. Methodologically, new concepts are applied: priming matrix and types of representations (Ilievska) with its operational elements (stimulus, prime, representation, subliminal level), and the concepts: awareness and collective nonconscious schemes (Ilievski, 2015), which are described as an opposite of the natural way of life, the personal autonomy and the real freedom. Each person has a basic need for relation, psychological organization, and structure. In its foundation lies the creation of basic mental constructs, socio-cognitive schemes, which have a neurobiological ground. In addition, human behavior can be programmed, nonconsciously, on multiple levels: individual, collective, global, through the complex psychological processes, modeling and conditioning, to the more subtle forms of priming, creating passive automatic social behavior.

Social cognition and sex: Are men and women really different?

Social cognition includes the ability to represent other people's intentions and beliefs, and the ability to share and recognise the emotions of others. Here, the main aim was to assess the possible presence of sex differences across four aspects of social cognition: (1) recognition of dynamic facial expressions; (2) representation of other people's mental states (both affective and cognitive Theory of Mind, ToM); (3) empathy; (4) identification and regulation of one's own emotions. Measures assessing social cognition were administrated to two hundred ten participants equally divided between men and women. Results showed no significant sex differences in affective and cognitive ToM, in the recognition of emotional facial expressions (with the exception of anger: women were more accurate than men), and in the ability to identify and regulate one's own emotions. A different result was found for empathy, with women reporting higher scores than men. No significant differences between women during follicular vs. luteal phase of menstrual cycle for all the social cognition measures were found. These results are discussed in light of the existing literature. To our knowledge, this study represents one of the few attempts to analyse in a single work sex differences across multiple areas of social cognition.

Zespół Kasandry

The most characteristic neuropsychological deficits in people with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) relate to the area of social cognition and executive functions. Neurotypical family members or partners of high-functioning people with ASD, unknowingly take on roles related to mentalization of mental states and replenishment of deficits of executive functions of their loved ones. The described phenomenon has been called Kasandra’s syndrome or mirroring syndrome. It coexists with a number of adverse emotional consequences for the partners of autistic persons. The purpose of this article is to present the cognitive distortions underlying the mirror syndrome that can lead to secondary emotional disorders in their partners. The analysis of the presented problems and case report allows to make several recommendations for the therapy of emotional disorders in neurotypical people in relationships with ASD partners. The diagnosis of cognitive and behavioral deficits presented by autistic partners and cognitive distortions that are created by neurotypical persons during the long- -term process of unconscious, traumatic “mind mapping” are of fundamental importance. The most common cognitive distortions relay on: the tunnel thinking, the assigning positive and negative motivations, and minimizing the negative behavioral impact of an ASD partner on the social environment. The awareness of the described phenomena allows better addressing the goals of therapy for both patients with Kasandra’s syndrome and people with ASD who are in partnerships

Compassion-Cultivating Pedagogy

AbstractPrevious studies suggest that narrative fiction promotes social justice by increasing empathy, but critics have argued that the partiality of empathy severely limits its effectiveness as an engine of social justice, and that what needs to be developed is universal compassion rather than empathy. We created Compassion-Cultivating Pedagogy (CCP) to target the development of two social-cognition capabilities that entail compassion: (1) recognition of self-other overlap and (2) cognizance of the situational, uncontrollable causes of bad character, bad behavior, and bad life-outcomes. Employing a pre/post within- and between-subjects design, we found that students in the CCP classes, but not students in conventionally taught classes, improved in these two areas of social cognition and also exhibited increased preference for compassionate social policies for stigmatized groups. This finding suggests that pedagogy can play a significant role in literature’s contribution to social justice, and that further efforts to develop and test pedagogies for improving social cognition are warranted.

The Relationship of Clinical Symptoms with Social Cognition in Children Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Specific Learning Disorder or Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Objective One of the areas of social cognition is Theory of Mind (ToM) is defined as the capacity to interpret, infer and explain mental states underlying the behavior of others. When social cognition studies on neurodevelopmental disorders are examined, it can be seen that this skill has not been studied sufficiently in children with Specific Learning Disorder (SLD). Methods In this study, social cognition skills in children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), SLD or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) evaluated before puberty and compared with controls. To evaluate the ToM skills, the first and secondorder false belief tasks, the Hinting Task, the Faux Pas Test and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task were used. Results We found that children with neurodevelopmental disorders as ADHD, ASD, and SLD had ToM deficits independent of intelligence and language development. There was a significant correlation between social cognition deficits and problems experienced in many areas such as social communication and interaction, attention, behavior, and learning. Conclusion Social cognition is an important area of impairment in SLD and there is a strong relationship between clinical symptoms and impaired functionality.

S66. THEORY OF MIND IN A FIRST-EPISODE PSYCHOSIS POPULATION USING THE HINTING TASK

BackgroundImpaired social functioning is one of the most apparent features of psychotic disorders. Deficits in social cognition may explain impaired functioning even more than the other cognitive deficits related to psychosis. Of the areas of social cognition, especially relevant to psychosis appear to be deficiencies in theory of mind (ToM), the ability to perceive and interpret the mental states of others, or “mentalizing”. Currently, it is unclear to what extent general cognitive deficits explain impairment in ToM.We wanted to explore 1) the possible difference in ToM between first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients and controls, 2) whether diagnosis group (schizophrenia vs. other psychotic disorders) and level of functioning are associated with ToM, and 3) to what extent these differences are explained by general cognitive performance.MethodsThis study examined ToM in young adults with FEP (n=66). Of those, 25 had schizophrenia and the rest were diagnosed with other psychotic disorders. Age- and gender-matched controls were identified from the Population Information System (n=62). The participants were administered a broad neuropsychological assessment, part of which was the Hinting Task assessing ToM. With 10 short discussions in everyday situations, the Hinting Task assesses the ability to conclude, from indirect speech, what another person really means.A factor score of the Hinting Task was formed, taking into account the varying difficulty level and relevance of the 10 items. To investigate the association between ToM and general cognitive functions, we summarized non-social cognitive performance constructing a “g factor”, which was used as an overall index of general cognitive performance.ResultsThe internal consistency of the Hinting Task calculated from the dichotomized data was modest, with McDonald’s categorical omega estimated at .57 (95 % CI .36, .71). In the single dimensional factor solution, items 8 and 9 had the weakest loadings and item 10 the strongest. Items 9 and 10 of the Hinting Task were the easiest, and items 1 and 8 were the most difficult.Participants with FEP (mean score 16.0) performed worse than controls (mean score 17.4) on the Hinting Task (Cohen’s d=0.50 calculated from factor scores). However, the difference between FEP and control groups was no longer significant when general cognition was controlled for. 75 % of the variance between the groups was explained by general cognitive deficits, especially impaired processing speed (WAIS-III Digit Symbol) and episodic memory (WMS-III Logical Memory).When the FEP group was divided according to diagnosis, those with schizophrenia scored lower on the Hinting Task than the other psychosis patients. The ToM difference between individuals with schizophrenia and controls (Cohen’s d=1.1) remained significant even when general cognitive performance was controlled for. In contrast, those with other psychotic disorders than schizophrenia did not differ from controls.ToM performance of the best functioning patient group (20 patients who had a GAF score ≥50, Hinting Task mean score 17.8) did not differ from that of the control group.DiscussionBased on this study, and supporting previous findings (Bora & Pantelis, Schizophr. Res. 2013), deficits in ToM were already present in early psychosis. They were largely overlapping with deficits in general cognitive processes. However, and in line with previous meta-analytical findings (Sprong et al., Br. J. Psychiatry 2007), in a subgroup of the FEP patients with schizophrenia, impairments in ToM remained after controlling for overall cognitive functioning. In conclusion, specific deficits in ToM could be found in schizophrenia, independent from general cognitive deficits.

Philosophy of man as an object of social-philosophical reflexion

This article formed the theoretical foundation philosophy of man as an object of socio-philosophical reflection, which is one of the most modern post non-classical sciences, is of great theoretical significance for reflection feedbacks unified social organism. Analyzed the social dimensions of human cognition that are based on the fact that the man - a reflective monad, guiding your mind on a natural existential dimension of life; defined the modern vision of man and the world, which is formed during the interaction of different theoretical traditions and attitudes of flexible penetration into the essence of man; uncovered areas of social cognition, contributing versatile understanding of social space and social time. Methodology - methods of socioaxiological, socioatological and synergetic methods with approaches that allow to analyze a person as a complex of social phenomena and developing dynamic phenomena. The article deals with the problems of the person in the conditions of crisis society. The result of the research. It is proved that in the conditions of an informational society, a person turns into informational person who must learn to exist and adapt to the informational society. The article substantiates the conceptual vision of a man as an object of social and philosophical discourse and reflection. The author uses the possibility of philosophical analysis in order for a person to find a way out of crisis social situations, and formed a holistic view of a person. Conclusion. Possibilities of philosophical analysis allowed to propose their own vision of human problems in the conditions of crisis existence and development of a coherent concept of personality. The proposed article has some original in relation to the mechanisms of forming the reflection of the inverse relationships of individuals as a single social organism. The topic of the article deals with the phenomena of a person as an integral creature, which is a problem field that philosophy deals with as a love of wisdom and the search for the meaning of human life

The philosophy of a man as an object of sicio-philosophical reflection

This article formed the theoretical base of the philosophy of man as an object of social and philosophical reflection, which is one of the most modern post-neoclassical science, is of great theoretical value for the reflection of feedback unified social organism. We analyzed the social dimensions of human knowledge, which proceed from the fact that the person - a reflective Monad, directing their minds to the natural and existential dimensions of life; defined modern vision of man and the world, which is formed during the interaction of different theoretical traditions and approaches of an elastic penetrating into the essence of man; uncovered areas of social cognition, elastic promotion of understanding social space and social time

Clinical and therapeutic role of mentalization in schizophrenia-a review.

Recent empirical findings from clinical and genetic studies suggest that mentalization, a key area of social cognition, is a distinct construct, although it is closely related to the neurocognitive deficits and symptoms of schizophrenia. Mentalization contributes a great deal to impaired social functioning. Current measures often display methodological problems, and many aspects should be taken into account when assessing mentalization. Moreover, advances in cognitive and affective neurosciences have led to the development of more advanced behavioral methods to assess the relationship between cognitive functions, symptoms, and social cognition based on their underlying neural mechanisms. The development of assessment tools that better examine the neural circuitry of such relationships may lead to the development of new psychosocial and pharmacological treatments.

Assessment and Rehabilitation of Social Cognition Impairment after Brain Injury: Surveying Practices of Clinicians

Objectives: This study examined the current assessment practices of clinicians working with people with social cognition impairment following traumatic brain injury.Method: Two hundred and sixty clinicians completed an on-line survey that was disseminated through professional brain injury organisations. Of respondents around 90% were allied health clinicians, with the remainder comprising medical, nursing and academia.Main outcomes: The four areas of social cognition that were routinely assessed across the disciplines were insight, disinhibition, anger and social adjustment. The least routinely assessed areas were theory of mind and alexithymia. The test suggested most likely to identify social cognition impairments was The Awareness of Social Inference Test, although only 8% of clinicians responded to this question. Clinicians preferred informal assessment methods over standardised assessment methods for identifying social cognition rehabilitation goals. Higher levels of education were associated with greater use of standardised assessment modalities. Whilst there was paucity of responses overall, TBI Express was most commonly used for social cognition rehabilitation.Conclusions: Considering the high prevalence of social cognition impairments in this population, formal assessment is extremely limited. The under-utilisation of assessment tools is problematic for the assessment and rehabilitation initiatives offered to people with TBI. These results have implications for the training of clinicians working in brain injury rehabilitation.

Validation of theoretical assumptions with real and falsified survey data

Falsification of survey data in face-to-face surveys has been intensively discussed in the literature. The results about the impact of falsifications on survey data are equivocal. While some authors report a strong impact, others find only little differences between real and falsified data. We argue that the impact of falsifications cannot be neglected, particularly when theory-driven analyses are conducted and not ad hoc analyses. The latter reproduce stereotypes used by both, researchers and falsifiers. To test this assumption we compare the results of multivariate regression analyses with real and falsified data by using a) theory- driven predictors and b) ad hoc predictors. As an example of theory-driven analyses we used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for predicting self-reported healthy eating behavior. As ad hoc predictors we included socio-demographic information about the respondents known to the falsifiers as well as variables, which are indicated by everyday theories. The results show that theory-driven relationships were more strongly pronounced in the real data. In contrast, stereotypical and non-theory-driven relationships were more strongly pronounced in the falsified data. The results provide insights in the area of social cognition when predicting the behavior of others.

Longitudinal stability of social cognition in schizophrenia: A 5-year follow-up of social perception and emotion processing

BackgroundIndividuals with schizophrenia exhibit marked and disproportional impairment in social cognition, which is associated with their level of community functioning. However, it is unclear whether social cognitive impairment is stable over time, or if impairment worsens as a function of illness chronicity. Moreover, little is known about the longitudinal associations between social cognition and community functioning. MethodForty-one outpatients with schizophrenia completed tests of emotion processing (Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, MSCEIT) and social perception (Relationships Across Domains, RAD) at baseline and approximately five years later. Stability of performance was assessed using paired t-tests and correlations. Longitudinal associations between social cognition and community functioning (Role Functioning Scale, RFS) were assessed using cross-lagged panel correlation analysis. ResultsPerformance on the two social cognition tasks were stable over follow-up. There were no significant mean differences between assessment points [p's≥0.20, Cohen'sd's≤|0.20|], and baseline performance was highly correlated with performance at follow-up [ρ's≥0.70, ICC≥0.83, p's<0.001]. The contemporaneous association between social cognition and community functioning was moderately large at follow-up [ρ=0.49, p=0.002]. However, baseline social cognition did not show a significant longitudinal influence on follow-up community functioning [z=0.31, p=0.76]. ConclusionsThese data support trait-like stability of selected areas of social cognition in schizophrenia. Cross-lagged correlations did not reveal a significant unidirectional influence of baseline social cognition on community functioning five years later. However, consistent with the larger literature, a moderately large cross-sectional association between social cognition and community functioning was observed. Based on stability and cross-sectional associations, these results suggest that social cognition might have short-term implications for functional outcome rather than long-term consequences.

Sex Differences in Severity, Social Functioning, Adherence to Treatment, and Cognition of Adolescents with Schizophrenia.

Background. Previous studies have reported sex differences in the clinical presentation and outcome of adult patients with schizophrenia; the aim of present study was to compare the clinical characteristics, social functioning, adherence to treatment, and cognition of adolescents with this diagnosis in a six-month followup. Methods. A total of 87 adolescents with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizophreniform disorder were evaluated with the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), the Matrics Consensus Cognitive Battery (MCCB), Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP), and the Rating of Medication Influences (ROMI). Results. Both groups showed a similar improvement in all PANSS factors and in the PSP scores during the followup. Males better adhered to treatment. Females displayed better results in the area of social cognition (F = 6.3, df = 2,52, and p = 0.003) and attention/vigilance (F = 8.3, df = 2,51, and p = 0.001). Conclusions. Male and female adolescents showed similar clinical presentation and functioning but a different pattern of cognitive improvement and adherence to treatment. This trial is registered with Clinicaltrials.gov II3/02/0811.‏

In the name of God: How children and adults judge agents who act for religious versus secular reasons

Many people are guided by religious beliefs, but judgments of religiously and secularly motivated individuals remain unclear. We investigated reasoning about religiously versus secularly motivated characters among 5- to 10-year-olds and adults. In Study 1, theist and non-theist children reported similar attitudes toward theists; however, large differences emerged between theist and non-theist adults. Study 2 obtained similar results using a continuous, rather than forced choice, measure of preference. Additionally, Studies 2–3 tested two explanations for the stronger influence of religious background on adults’ versus children’s responses. Study 2 did not find strong evidence for the theistic majority account, which posits that the greater perceived prevalence of theists as compared with non-theists influenced children’s responses more than adults’ responses. The results of Study 3 were consistent with the intuition account, which argues that non-theist adults had effortfully overridden the teleological intuitions that may have influenced children’s responses in Studies 1–2 and potentially led children to prefer characters whose beliefs were in line with children’s own intuitions. The degree to which teleological intuitions persisted implicitly among adults predicted those adults’ pro-theist preferences. These findings offer connections between religious judgments and other areas of social cognition, such as social preferences and teleology.

Social cognition in children at familial high-risk of developing an eating disorder.

Objective: Diagnosis of an eating disorder (ED) has been associated with differences in social cognition. To date research investigating social cognition and ED has mainly employed patient and recovered samples. It is therefore unclear whether differences in social cognition are present prior to onset of ED, potentially contributing to development, or whether differences observed are a consequence of the disorder. We aimed to further explore whether individuals at high-risk for ED present social cognition characteristics previously found in ED groups.Methods: Our sample was drawn from a population-based cohort, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Data on maternal ED behaviors over the lifetime were collected through in-depth clinical interviews (n = 1128) conducted using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM disorders (SCID), and were used to categorize mothers according to ED behaviors over the lifetime: Restricting and Excessive Exercising (n = 58), Purging (n = 70), Binge-eating (n = 72), Binging and Purging (n = 66), no ED (n = 862). High-risk status of children was determined using these maternal lifetime behavioral phenotypes. Children at high-risk (maternal ED exposure) were compared to children at low-risk (born to mothers with no ED) on three measures of social cognition: the Social Communication Disorders Checklist (SCDC) (n = 922), the faces subtest of the Diagnostic Analysis of Non-Verbal Accuracy (DANVA) (n = 722), and the Emotional Triangles Task (n = 750).Results: Children at high-risk for ED showed poorer performance on measures of social cognition compared to children at low-risk. Maternal lifetime binge-eating, and maternal lifetime binging and purging were associated with poorer social communication in children (OR: 2.4, 95% CI: 1.0, 5.7, p = 0.05; and OR: 2.7, 95% CI: 1.1, 6.5, p = 0.03 respectively). Maternal binging and purging was also found to be associated with differential facial emotion processing and poorer recognition of fear from social motion cues (B: −0.7, 95% CI: −1.1, −0.2, p = 0.004).Discussion: Children at high-risk for ED showed slight differences in some areas of social cognition when compared to children at low-risk. Characteristic patterns in social cognition are present in children at high-risk for ED, particularly among children whose mothers have binge-eating and purging behaviors over the lifetime. Our findings support the hypothesis that these differences may be part of an intermediate phenotype for ED: perhaps contributing to development, or perhaps indexing a shared liability with psychiatric disorders characterized by abnormal social cognition.

Comparative Study of Neurocognitive Profiles of Children with High Functioning Autism (hfa), Asperger’s Syndrome (as) and Intellectual High Potential (gifted): in What Are They Different?

Introduction Although the terminology of Asperger’s Syndrome has been subsumed within high functioning autism in the last edition of the DSM, the absence of a clear consensus concerning the relevance of the distinction between HFA and AS persists among researchers and clinicians. Besides, the frequent convergence of clinical signs between AS and intellectual high potential encourages to investigate the existence of parallels and their nature. The current situation contributes to maintain confusion at the diagnostically level and by extension to hamper the care system. Objectives Explore and better define three atypical neurocognitive profiles: HFA, AS and intellectual high potential, in order to refine the criteria for a more accurate identification. Methods Data will be collected from 5 groups of children: 'typical HFA”, 'typical AS”, 'typical gifted children”, 'atypical” (ambiguous diagnosis) and control. These groups will be compared to each other at multiple level: cognition, language, social cognition, psychomotor assessment. Evaluations will be completed by questionnaires and by a clinical interview process (anamnestic data). Results expected 'Typical” gifted children, even when they exhibit social issues, don’t have constitutional deficit in the area of social cognition and perform normally or above average in such tasks. Children with heterogeneous psychometric profiles show neuropsychological and/or psychopathological disorders. AS group performs better in language dimension and verbal comprehension (vocabulary, verbal abstraction) than HFA group. In addition, AS children might present motor coordination difficulties and undetermined lateralization more frequently than HFA children. Conclusions Despite these differences, these children exhibit atypical developmental trajectories characterized by heterochrony.