Social Cognition Battery Research Articles

Social cognition in adults with neurofibromatosis type 1.

Adult patients with the genetic disease neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) frequently report social difficulties. To date, however, only two studies have explored whether these difficulties are caused by social cognition deficits, and these yielded contradictory data. The aim of the present study was to exhaustively assess social cognition abilities (emotion, theory of mind, moral reasoning, and social information processing) in adults with NF1, compared with a control group, and to explore links between social cognition and disease characteristics (mode of inheritance, severity, and visibility). We administered a social cognition battery to 20 adults with NF1 (mean age = 26.5 years, SD = 7.4) and 20 healthy adults matched for sociodemographic variables. Patients scored significantly lower than controls on emotion, theory of mind, moral reasoning, and social information processing tasks. No effects of disease characteristics were found. These results appear to confirm that adults with NF1 have a social cognition weaknesses that could explain, at least in part, their social difficulties, although social abilities are not all impaired to the same extent. Regarding the impact of the disease characteristics, the patient sample seemed slightly insufficient for the power analyses performed. Thus, this exploratory study should form the basis of further research, with the objective of replicating these results with larger and more appropriately matched samples.

Mini-SEA: Validity and Normative Data for the French-Quebec Population Aged 50Years and Above.

The mini Social cognition & Emotional Assessment (mini-SEA) is a social cognition battery which assesses theory of mind and emotion recognition. Currently, no psychometrically validated measure of social cognition with adapted normative data exists for the middle-aged and elderly French-Quebec population. This project aims to determine the known-group discriminant validity of a cultural and linguistic adaptation of the mini-SEA between cognitively healthy people, those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or living with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). This study also aims to examine the stability of mini-SEA's performance over a 3-4-month time period, as well as to produce normative data for French-Quebec people aged 50years. Normative data are derived for the full and an abbreviated version of the Faux Pas subtest. The sample included 211 French-speaking participants from Quebec (Canada) aged 50 to 89years. Mini-SEA's performance between a sub-sample of cognitively healthy people (n = 20), those with MCI (n = 20) or with AD (n = 20) was compared. A sub-sample of cognitively healthy people (n= 30) performed the task twice to estimate test-retest reliability. Socio-demographic variables' effects on scores were examined to produce normative data in the form of regression equations or percentile ranks. Significant differences emerged between cognitively healthy people and those with MCI or AD. Moreover, scores were relatively stable over a period of 3 to 4months. Finally, for the normative data, age, gender, and education were associated with performance on the mini-SEA or its subtests. This study improves and standardizes social cognition's assessment among French-Quebec individuals, which will help characterize their cognitive profile.

The Impact of cognitive remediation combined with mindfulness and social skills training on social functioning and neural plasticity in early psychosis: preliminary results from a randomized clinical multicentric trial in Italy

AbstractAffective and non-affective psychoses are characterized by deficits in neuro and social cognition, which strongly impact the patient’s psychosocial functioning and health and social system. Recent literature suggests that such deficits could benefit from the innovative combination of evidence-based interventions.This lecture aims to describe an Italian multisite (Verona, Milano, Pavia), longitudinal randomized controlled trial funded by the Italian Ministry of Health investigating the impact of Cognitive Remediation (CR) alone or combined with other approaches (namely, Mindfulness and Social Skills Training (SST)) on clinical, neuropsychological, social and brain-related outcomes in patients with a DSM5 diagnosis of affective or non-affective psychosis.In our study, patients underwent clinical and neuropsychological evaluation at baseline (T0), end of treatment (T1), and six months post-treatment (T2), which consisted of nearly four months of CR, CR+ Mindfulness, or CR + SST. The cognitive assessment included the Brief Assessment of Cognition for Schizophrenia (BAC-S) or Affective Disorders (BAC-A) and the Executive and Social Cognition Battery (ESCB), specifically designed to identify impairments in social cognition and executive functions in patients’ real life. Participants underwent a 3T multimodal MRI, including structural and functional sequences at T0 and T1. We also recruited healthy controls for comparative brain mapping at T0.The present lecture will provide an overview of the research project, along with some preliminary findings on the effect of CR alone or combined with other interventions on clinical and social functioning and brain plasticity, with a focus on the degree of durability and generalization of CR effects to patients’ real life. The study’s outcomes have the potential to inform clinical and rehabilitative settings and tailor combined therapeutic interventions.Disclosure of InterestC. Perlini Grant / Research support from: Italian Ministry of Health GR-2016-02361283

Heterogenous factors modulate social cognition across diverse settings in brain health and disease

AbstractBackgroundSocial cognition dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases such as the behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is typically ascribed to the underlying pathophysiological processes spanning specific atrophy and connectivity alterations. However, social cognition performance might be modulated by a set of more heterogenous, non‐specific factors, including demographics (sex, age, education, socioeconomic status), general cognitive and executive abilities, and behavior inside the scanner (i.e., movements), but their relative contribution is poorly understood. Here, we develop a machine learning approach to characterize multimodal factors that explain the inter‐individual heterogeneity of social cognition in a diverse multicentric sample.MethodA total of 998 individuals > 50 years from international research networks in high‐ and middle‐income countries participated in this study: 102 with bvFTD, 339 with AD, 96 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 461 with preserved cognition (with and without cognitive complaints). Social cognition was assessed with the Mini Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment (MiniSEA) battery, which includes tests of facial emotion recognition and theory of mind. After data harmonization, we implemented support vector regressions combined with bootstrapping to predict social cognition outcomes from multimodal features, including diagnosis, demographics, cognitive and executive functions, grey matter volume, fMRI resting‐state network connectivity, and movement artifacts, and assessed their relative contribution to performance (Figure 1). Models were assessed with the coefficient of determination R², Fisher’s F test, Cohen’s F², 95% confidence intervals, and p‐values.ResultGeneral cognitive and executive functions and years of education consistently emerged among the top predictive features of social cognition performance and explained more variance than diagnosis. Other features making significant contributions were: sex, the gray matter volume of relevant regions, and in‐scanner movements. Age and resting‐state network connectivity did not make any significant contribution to performance heterogeneity (Figure 2).ConclusionSocial cognition performance was more strongly predicted by a set of heterogenous individual differences than by neurodegenerative diagnoses and associated brain signatures. Diagnoses might relate to complex profiles. Results highlight a critical modulator role of heterogeneity on social cognition, with implications for the neuropsychological assessment in brain health and disease across diverse, multi‐setting populations.

A comparative study of social cognition in epilepsy, brain injury, and Parkinson's disease.

The brain regions involved in social cognition and the regulation of social behavior form a widely distributed cortico-subcortical network. Therefore, many neurological disorders could affect social cognition and behavior. A persistent lack of valid tests and a rigid neuropsychological focus on language, attention, executive function, and memory have contributed to a long-standing neglect of social cognition in clinical diagnostics, although the DSM-5 recognizes it as one of the six core dimensions in neurocognitive disorders. To assess for the first time the diagnostic yield of a comprehensive social cognition battery (Networks of Emotion Processing [NEmo]), we administered several emotion recognition and theory of mind tests to three incidental clinical samples with different neurological conditions: temporal lobe epilepsy (n = 30), acquired brain injury (n = 24), Parkinson's disease (n = 19), and a healthy control group (n = 67). A multivariate analysis of covariance was performed to test the effect of group on subscales of the NEmo test battery, controlling for age and performance IQ. The results showed statistically significant differences between clinical groups and healthy controls. No differences were found for gender and lateralization of the predominant lesion side. In our incidental samples, 86% of individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy, 57% of individuals with acquired brain lesion, and 14% of individuals with Parkinson's disease underperformed on tests of social cognition compared with controls. These findings suggest a differential impact of neurological disorders on the risk of impaired social cognition and highlight the need to consider social cognition in diagnostics, counselling, therapy, and rehabilitation.

Assessing Social Cognition Across Dementia Subtypes (P6-6.004)

<h3>Objective:</h3> In this study, we aim to determine the clinical utility of bedside social cognition assessments in the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). We hypothesized that patients with FTD would score lower compared to patients with other neuropsychiatric disorders and healthy controls. <h3>Background:</h3> Although social cognition is selectively impaired in FTD, it is not routinely assessed in clinical evaluations, leading to frequent misdiagnoses such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and primary psychiatric disorders (PPD). <h3>Design/Methods:</h3> We created a battery of social cognition assessments that provide a comprehensive measurement of each patient’s social cognition, including degree of empathy, ability to identify emotions in others, and capacity to interpret social cues. The battery includes the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), the Mini-Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment (mini-SEA), and The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT-S). The battery was administered to 60 patients, including patients with FTD (n=11), AD (n=18), vascular dementia (VD) (n=9), Lewy Body Dementia (DLB) (n=3), PPD (n=9), and 10 healthy controls (HC). We then calculated the averages in assessment scores for comparison across subgroups (FTD, AD, VD, DLB, PPD, and HC). <h3>Results:</h3> Patients with FTD had lower scores across all assessments. On the IRI, the average score for FTD patients was 49.3 ±6.80 compared to AD (67.8), VD (57.2), DLB (58.7), PPD (62.1), and HC (69.6). The average score on the Mini-SEA was 25.2 ±2.98 for FTD patients compared to AD (30.3), VD (30.3), DLB (30.0), PPD (30.4), and HC (33.5). The average total score on the TASIT-S for FTD patients was 24.2 ±1.93 compared to AD (26.0), VD (24.2), DLB (24.2), PPD (26.8), and HC (29.5). <h3>Conclusions:</h3> The FTD subgroup consistently scored lower on all assessments in the social cognition battery, demonstrating the potential for bedside social cognition assessments for early diagnosis of FTD. <b>Disclosure:</b> Miss Lorino has received personal compensation for serving as an employee of Tulane University. The institution of Miss Lorino has received research support from National Institutes of Health. Ms. Yang has nothing to disclose. Ms. Covaciu has nothing to disclose. The institution of Dr. Seibert has received research support from Retirement Research Foundation. The institution of Dr. Seibert has received research support from Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and Innovation.

Heterogeneity of social cognitive performance in autism and schizophrenia.

Autistic adults and those with schizophrenia (SCZ) demonstrate similar levels of reduced social cognitive performance at the group level, but it is unclear whether these patterns are relatively consistent or highly variable within and between the two conditions. Seventy-two adults with SCZ (52 male, Mage =28.2 years) and 94 with diagnoses on the autism spectrum (83 male, Mage =24.2 years) without intellectual disability completed a comprehensive social cognitive battery. Latent profile analysis identified four homogeneous subgroups that were compared on their diagnosis, independent living skills, neurocognition, and symptomatology. Two groups showed normative performance across most social cognitive tasks but were differentiated by one having significantly higher hostility and blaming biases. Autistic participants were more likely to demonstrate fully normative performance (46.8%) than participants with SCZ, whereas normative performance in SCZ was more likely to co-occur with increased hostility and blaming biases (36.1%). Approximately 43% of participants in the full sample were classified into the remaining two groups showing low or very low performance. These participants tended to perform worse on neurocognitive tests and have lower IQ and fewer independent living skills. The prevalence of low performance on social cognitive tasks was comparable across clinical groups. However, nearly half of autistic participants demonstrated normative social cognitive performance, challenging assumptions that reduced social cognitive performance is inherent to the condition. Subgrouping also revealed a meaningful distinction between the clinical groups: participants with SCZ were more likely to demonstrate hostility biases than autistic participants, even when social cognitive performance was otherwise in the typical range. LAY SUMMARY: Social cognition refers to the perception and interpretation of social information. Previous research has shown that both autistic people and those with schizophrenia demonstrate reduced performance on traditional social cognitive tasks, which we replicate here at the group level. However, we also found that almost half of autistic participants performed in the normal range. Over a third of participants with schizophrenia did as well, but for them this performance was accompanied by a hostility bias not commonly found in the autistic sample. Taken together, findings challenge assumptions that difficulties in social cognition are a uniform characteristic of these clinical conditions in those without intellectual disability.

Brief battery of the Social Cognition Psychometric Evaluation study (BB-SCOPE): Development and validation in schizophrenia spectrum disorders

The aim of the present study was to develop an abbreviated social cognition (SC) battery for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) to reduce the heterogeneity of and increase the frequency of assessment of SC impairment. To this end, the present study utilized Item Response Theory to develop brief versions of SC tasks administered to individuals with SSD (n = 386) and individuals without a psychiatric diagnosis (n = 292) during the Social Cognition Psychometric Evaluation (SCOPE) Study. Seven brief measures of SC were evaluated (i.e., Ambiguous Intentions and Hostility Questionnaire [AIHQ], Bell Lysaker Emotion Recognition Task [BLERT], Penn Emotion Recognition Task, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task, Hinting Task, Intentionality Bias Task, Relationships Across Domains Task), and the existing brief version of The Awareness of Social Inference Test was reviewed. Psychometric properties for each brief SC measure were evaluated and compared to the original measures. Based on psychometric properties and relationships with other measures of SC, neurocognition, and functioning, two brief tasks (AIHQ, BLERT) and the full-length Hinting task were recommended for inclusion in a brief battery of SC tasks from the SCOPE Study (BB-SCOPE). The resulting BB-SCOPE is efficient, with an estimated administration time of 15 min, and comprehensively assesses three domains of SC (i.e., attributional bias, emotion processing, theory of mind) to identify severe SC impairment. Scoring of BB-SCOPE is also straightforward and includes a recommended cut-point of 60 for identifying SC impairment.

Early Intervention in Severe Autism: Positive Outcome Using Exchange and Development Therapy.

Early intervention programs positively affect key behaviors for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most of these programs do not target children with severe autistic symptomatology associated with intellectual disability (ID). This study aimed to investigate the psychological and clinical outcomes of children with severe autism and ID enrolled in the Tailored and Inclusive Program for Autism—Tours (TIPA-T). The first step of the TIPA-T is the Exchange and Development Therapy (EDT): an individual neurofunctional intervention consisting of one-to-one exchanges between a child and a therapist taking place in a pared-down environment. It aims to rehabilitate psychophysiological abilities at the roots of social communication through structured sequences of “social play.” Cognitive and socio-emotional skills and general development were evaluated with the Social Cognitive Evaluation Battery scale and the Brunet–Lézine Scale—Revised, respectively, before and after 9 months of intervention in 32 children with ASD and ID. Autistic symptomatology was evaluated with the Behavior Summarized Evaluation—Revised scale at five time-points in a subset of 14 children, both in individual and group settings. Statistically significant post-intervention improvements were found in cognitive and socio-emotional skills. All but one child showed improvements in at least one social domain, and 78% of children gained one level in at least four social domains. Twenty-nine children improved in cognitive domains, with 66% of children improving in at least three cognitive domains. Autistic symptomatology evaluated in one-to-one settings significantly decreased with therapy; this reduction was observed in more than 85% of children. In group settings, autistic symptomatology also decreased in more than 60% of children. Global developmental age significantly increased by 3.8 months. The TIPA-T, including EDT in particular, improves socio-emotional skills of most children with ASD and reduces autistic symptomatology, yet with heterogeneous outcomes profiles, in line with the strong heterogeneity of profiles observed in ASD. At the group level, this study highlights the benefits of the TIPA-T for children with severe autism and associated ID. Assessment of autistic core symptoms showed an improvement of social interaction, both in one-to-one and group evaluations, demonstrating the generalizability of the skills learned during the EDT.

Investigating Developmental Profiles of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Early Indicators and Directions for Intervention

The study describes the relationships between autistic symptomatology severity, developmental heterogeneity, and chronological age for a group of 62 Brazilian children with ASD (59 boys, 3 girls); average chronological age was 42 months and 8 days (SD = 17 months, 15 days). Assessments were carried out with the Social Cognitive Evaluation Battery (SCEB), a French psychological assessment tool currently being validated in Brazil, and the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). Results indicated a negative correlation between developmental levels and intensity of autistic symptoms; a negative correlation between heterogeneity indices and developmental levels; and a positive correlation between heterogeneity indices and autistic symptomatology intensity. When comparing the group of younger children (less than 33 months) to the older children in the sample, the study demonstrates that early socio-emotional heterogeneity is a developmental marker in young children with ASD, and this finding can lead to personalized intervention programs.

A comprehensive assessment of poststroke social cognitive function.

Stroke-related social cognitive impairment is now well established, but studies vary considerably in the nature and magnitude of the deficits reported, as well as whether there are potential areas of preservation. Because these discrepancies may reflect clinical heterogeneity between the contributing research participants, this study provides the first concurrent assessment of all four core social cognitive domains (theory of mind, emotion perception, social behavior, and affective empathy) in the same stroke cohort. A secondary goal was to test whether the degree of social cognitive impairment varied as a function of the tasks' ecological validity, on the basis that tasks with greater realism may provide a better indication of the implications of any stroke-related difficulties for everyday social interactions. Participants included 35 people with first-time, ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke (as confirmed via MRI or CT) aged between 29 and 87 years (M = 64.69; SD = 12.92), and 35 controls matched for age, sex, and years of education. All participants completed a comprehensive social cognitive test battery as well as measures to broadly characterize neurocognitive function and well-being. Relative to controls, affective empathy was selectively preserved (d = 0.02), but stroke-related deficits were identified for theory of mind (d = -0.42), emotion perception (d = -0.48), and social behavior (d = -0.59). The degree of social cognitive impairment did not vary as a function of the tasks' ecological validity. These data enhance understanding of stroke-related social cognitive impairment and inform the development of tailored, evidence-based rehabilitation efforts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Outcome prediction with a social cognitive battery: a multicenter longitudinal study

The interest in social cognition in schizophrenia is justified by the relationship between deficits in these skills and negative functional outcomes. Although assessment batteries have already been described, there is no consensus about which measures are useful in predicting patient functioning or quality of life (QoL). We investigated a set of five measures of recognition of facial emotions, theory of mind (ToM), and empathy in a cohort of 143 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder at inclusion and, amongst whom 79 were reassessed 1 year later. The distribution was satisfactory for the TREF (Facial Emotion Recognition Task), V-SIR (Versailles-Situational Intention Reading), and QCAE (Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy). Internal consistency was satisfactory for the TREF, V-SIR, V-Comics (Versailles Intention Attribution Task), and QCAE. Sensitivity to change was acceptable for the TREF. The TREF and V-SIR showed a cross-sectional relationship with functioning beyond the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia but not beyond neurocognition. Moreover, the TREF and V-SIR at inclusion could not predict functioning one year later, whereas most neurocognitive and clinical dimensions at inclusion could. Finally, only affective QCAE showed a significant cross-sectional, but not longitudinal, association with QoL. In conclusion, the TREF had satisfactory psychometric properties and showed a cross-sectional, but not longitudinal, association with objective outcome measures, thus appearing to be reliable in clinical practice and research. The V-SIR also showed promising psychometric properties, despite a possible weakness to detect change. However, these measures should be interpreted within the context of the good predictive power of the neurocognitive and clinical status on the outcome.

The neurobiological underpinning of the social cognition impairments in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 2

Clinical studies described emotional and social behaviour alterations in patients with cerebellar diseases, proposing a role of specific cerebello-cerebral circuits in social cognition. However, for a long time these difficulties were underestimated, and no studies have addressed the correlation between social cognition deficits and topography of the cerebellar damage. The present study aims to investigate the social cognition impairment and the neuroanatomical alterations in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2) and to analyze their relationship. To this purpose a social cognition battery composed by three tests, and a MRI protocol were administered to 13 SCA2 patients and 26 healthy subjects.The pattern of gray matter (GM) atrophy was analyzed by voxel-based morphometry, and the GM volumes of each altered area were correlated with the behavioral scores to investigate anatomo-functional relationships. In addition, we investigated the relationship between social deficits and damage to the cerebellar peduncles using DTI diffusivity indices. Our patients showed impairment of the immediate perceptual component of the mental state recognition (i.e., to recognize feelings and thoughts from the eyes expression), and difficulties in anger attribution, and in the understanding of false or mistaken beliefs. They showed a pattern of GM reduction in cerebellar regions, including lobules IX and VIIIb and Crus II, all of which are involved in specific components of the mentalizing process. Interestingly, the behavioral performance, in which SCA2 patients showed impairments compared to controls, correlated with the degree of cerebellar GM reduction and with the presence of microstructural abnormalities in the cerebellar peduncles.The present study provides the first characterization of the social cognition deficits in a homogenous cohort SCA2 patients and demonstrates that alterations in specific cerebellar regions should represent the neurobiological underpinning of their social behavior difficulties. Our results offer a new point of view in considering these aspects in the clinical practice.

Social Cognition and Friendships in Adolescents With Autistic-Like Experiences and Psychotic-Like Experiences.

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and schizophrenia spectrum conditions (SSC) are both characterized by changes in social-cognitive functioning. Less is known about the overlap and the differences in social-cognitive functioning when comparing individuals with subclinical levels of ASC and SSC, while studies in non-clinical samples have the benefit of avoiding confounds that are present in clinical groups. Therefore, we first examined how autistic-like experiences, positive psychotic-like experiences and the co-occurrence of both correlated with the performance on an extensive battery of social cognition tasks in young adolescents. Second, we examined the effect of autistic-like experiences, psychotic-like experiences and their co-occurrence on friendships in daily life. A total of 305 adolescents (Mage = 12.6, sd = 0.4, 147 boys) participated in the current study. A battery of social cognition tasks, comprising the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task, Dot perspective task and trust game were individually administered in a classroom setting, along with a friendship peer nomination questionnaire. Results indicated no evidence for a relationship between the performance on the social cognition battery and subclinical experiences of autism and/or psychosis. However, results did show that the amount of autistic-like experiences of adolescents were associated with being less often selected as a friend by their peers. By contrast, no relationship between self-reported friendships and autistic-like experiences was found. Neither a relationship between friendships and psychotic-like experiences was reported. This study provides initial evidence that information provided by peers may shed light on (altered) social behavior associated with autistic-like experiences that is not apparent on performance measures, as well as elucidate possible differences between autistic- and psychotic-like experiences.

Development, Spanish Normative Data, and Validation of a Social Cognition Battery in Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

The assessment of social cognition changes may be challenging, especially in the earliest stages of some neurodegenerative diseases. Our objective was to validate a social cognition battery from a multidomain perspective. In this regard, we aimed to adapt several tests, collect normative data, and validate them in prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD) and multiple sclerosis (MS). A total of 92 healthy controls, 25 prodromal AD, and 39 MS patients were enrolled. Age-, gender-, and education-matched control groups were created for comparisons. Social cognition battery was composed of an emotion-labeling task developed from FACES database, the Story-based Empathy test (SET), the Faux Pas test, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Patients were also evaluated with a comprehensive cognitive battery to evaluate the other cognitive domains. Automatic linear modeling was used to predict each social cognition test's performance using the neuropsychological tests examining other cognitive domains. The reliability of the battery was moderate-high. Significant intergroup differences were found with medium-large effect sizes. Moderate correlations were found between social cognition battery and neuropsychological tests. The emotion labeling task and SET showed moderate correlations with age and education, and age, respectively. Regression-based norms were created considering the relevant demographic variables. Linear regression models including other neuropsychological tests explained between 7.7% and 68.8% of the variance of the social cognition tests performance. Our study provides a battery for the assessment of social cognition in prodromal AD and MS with Spanish normative data to improve the evaluation in clinical and research settings.

Social and nonsocial cognition: Are they linked? A study on patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury

Objectives The first aim was to study the relationship between Social Cognition (SC) and nonsocial Cognition (n-SC) measures in a group of patients with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) to assess the dependence or independence of both types of cognition. The second aim was to explore the relationships between SC measures and generate a model based on the results of these relationships. Methods and procedures Forty-three subacute patients with TBI were included in the study. They were administered a SC battery and n-SC battery. SC battery included the following measures: International Affective Picture System (IAPS); Facial Expressions of Emotion-Stimuli Test (FEEST); Moving Shapes Paradigm (MSP); Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test- Revised Version (RMET); Social Decision Making Task (SDMT). n-SC battery included Digit Span Forwards and Backwards; Trail Making Test (Part A); Rey’s Auditory Verbal Learning Test; Letter-Number Sequencing; and verbal fluency test (PMR). Results FEEST, MSP and RMET were related to n-SC measures. The exploratory factor analysis shows a two-factor SC structure: Factor 1: Emotional recognition and mentalization (FEEST, MSP and RMET) and Factor 2: Acquisition and contextualization (IAPS and SDMT). Conclusion The performance of subjects with moderate-to-severe TBI in the SC measures is related, at least partially, by the performance in the n-SC measures. Our SC model shows a two-factor structure characterized by a first factor that brings together SC measures that are highly related to n-SC domains and a second factor that brings together measures whose performance is not influenced by n-SC domains.

Social cognition in cervical dystonia: phenotype and relationship to anxiety and depression.

Anxiety and depression are common disabling comorbidities in cervical dystonia (CD) and may predispose to social withdrawal and social cognitive impairments. The relationship between social cognition and depressive/anxiety symptoms in CD is under-investigated. Forty-six CD patients (40 women; meanage ±SD, 55.57±10.84years) were administered the following social cognition battery: Affect Naming, Prosody Face and Pair Matching subtests from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV and Wechsler Memory Scale IV (social perception), reality-known and reality-unknown false belief reasoning tasks (theory of mind), Empathy Quotient and Social Norms Questionnaire 22 (social behaviour), alongside the Benton Facial Recognition Task (non-emotional facial discrimination). Alongside CD severity, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale measured depressive/anxiety comorbid diagnostic status and severity, and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale assessed social phobia. Social cognition tasks were standardized using published normative data and a cut-off of z<-1.5 for impairment. More than 90% of our CD patients performed normally on social perception and social behaviour tests. Performance on impaired belief reasoning (theory of mind) was impaired in 10 of 46 (21.74%); five of 46 (10.87%) were impaired on the Empathy Quotient. Better performance on the Affect Naming task was associated with comorbid anxiety (η2 =0.09, medium-to-large effect size) and greater anxiety, depression and social phobia severity. Worse performance on the Empathy Quotient was associated with comorbid depression (η2 =0.11, medium-to-large effect size) and greater depression severity. CD patients had significantly more difficulties with fearful face identification (P<0.001). Greater social perception abilities in CD patients with more severe anxiety and depression suggest efficient modulation and self-adaptation of social cognitive skills.

Psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental profiles of children with Rubinstein-Taybi Syndrome and a severe intellectual disability

ABSTRACT Background: Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RSTS) is a multiple congenital anomaly syndrome characterised by several typical somatic characteristics and by developmental disabilities with various degrees of severity. Focusing on children with RSTS, the aim of this study was to describe their psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-emotional developmental profiles. Method: Twenty-three children with RSTS (12 boys; 11 girls; mean chronological age: 4 years and 10 months) with severe intellectual disability (mean developmental quotient = 32.39) were recruited from an Expert Department of Medical Genetics. Developmental assessments were carried out with the Brunet-Lézine-Revised scale and the Social Cognitive Evaluation Battery. Results: The participants’ developmental profiles were characterised by heterogeneous psychomotor development, homogeneous cognitive and socio-emotional development, by more severe delays in expressive language, vocal imitation, and symbolic play skills, and by better developmental levels in socio-emotional abilities. Conclusions: Based on these atypical developmental profiles, early interventions should target the three most delayed abilities.

Abnormal Cortical Thickness Is Associated With Deficits in Social Cognition in Patients With Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1.

Aim: To investigate the cortical thickness in myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) and its potential association with patients' genetic triplet expansion and social cognition deficits.Methods: Thirty patients with DM1 underwent the Social Cognition Battery Test and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning at 3 T. Twenty-five healthy subjects (HSs) were enrolled in the study to serve as a control group for structural MRI data. To assess changes in cortical thickness in DM1 patients, they were compared to HSs using a t-test model. Correlations were used to assess potential associations between genetic and clinical characteristics and social cognition performances in the patient group. Additionally, multiple regression models were used to explore associations between cortical thickness, CTG triplet expansion size, and scores obtained by DM1 patients on the Social Cognition Battery.Results: DM1 patients showed low performances in several subtests of the Social Cognition Battery. Specifically, they obtained pathological scores at Emotion Attribution Test (i.e., Sadness, Embarrassment, Happiness, and Anger) and at the Social Situations Test (i.e., recognition of normal situation, recognition of aberrant behavior). Significant negative correlations were found between CTG triplet expansion size and Embarrassment, and Severity of Aberrant Behavior. Similarly, a negative correlation was found between patients' MIRS scores and Sadness. DM1 patients compared to HSs showed reduced thickness in the right premotor cortex, angular gyrus, precuneus, and inferior parietal lobule. Significant associations were found between patients' CTG triplet expansion size and thickness in left postcentral gyrus and in the left primary somatosensory cortex, in the posterior cingulate cortex bilaterally, and in the right lingual gyrus. Finally, significant associations were found between cortical thickness and sadness in the superior temporal gyrus, the right precentral gyrus, the right angular gyrus, and the left medial frontal gyrus bilaterally. DM1 patients showed a negative correlation between cortical thickness in the bilateral precuneus and in the left lateral occipital cortex and performance at the Social Situations Test. Finally, DM1 patients showed a negative correlation between cortical thickness in the left precuneus and in the superior frontal gyrus and scores at the Moral Distinction Test.Discussion: The present study shows both cortical thickness changes in DM1 patients compared to controls and significant associations between cortical thickness and patients' social cognition performances. These data confirm the presence of widespread brain damages associated with cognitive impairment in DM1 patients.

Evaluation of social cognitive measures in an Asian schizophrenia sample

BackgroundConverging evidence has indicated that deficits in social cognition may manifest as poor functioning; therefore, social cognition has emerged as an important research area and treatment target. However, few studies have examined the psychometrics of multiple social cognition measures in an Asian population. This study aims to evaluate the psychometrics of measures indexing the four core social cognition domains. MethodsSchizophrenia outpatients (n = 116) and healthy controls (n = 73) completed a battery of nine social cognitive measures, twice, four weeks apart. Psychometric properties were examined via test-retest reliability, internal consistency, utility as a repeated measure, time administration, and tolerability. Logistic regression was performed to identify psychometrically sound tasks that best discriminated case-control status. PCA was conducted to explore social cognition dimensional structure. ResultsThe Bell Lysaker Emotion Recognition Task (BLERT), Penn Emotion Recognition Task (ER40), and The Awareness of Social Inference Test, branch III (TASIT-3) showed strongest psychometrics. The Ambiguous Intentions and Hostility Questionnaire, Hostility Bias subscale (AIHQ-HB) showed slightly weaker properties, requiring further evaluation. The Hinting task, Mini Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (MiniPONS), Relationships Across Domains (RAD), Internal Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ), and Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) showed poorer psychometrics in our sample. PCA revealed a two-factor solution comprising social cognition skills and attributional style/bias. ConclusionHere, we examined the psychometric properties of a comprehensive social cognition battery based on the SCOPE study in an Asian schizophrenia population. Continued evaluation and standardization of social cognitive measures are needed to refine our understanding of this construct in schizophrenia.