6533b827fe1ef96bd1286741

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Social cognition and executive functions in children and adolescents with focal epilepsy

Roberta MazzaMarco CarotenutoAlberto VerrottiCarlo Di BonaventuraFrancesca Felicia OpertoMichele RoccellaGrazia Maria Giovanna PastorinoRosa MarottaSara MatricardiNazareno Pastorino

subject

MaleSocial CognitionAdolescentEmotionsTheory of MindNeuropsychological TestsEpilepsiesAdolescentsExecutive Function03 medical and health sciencesEpilepsy0302 clinical medicineRaven's Progressive MatricesSocial cognition030225 pediatricsTheory of mindmedicineHumansIn patientChildChildrenEpilepsyCognitionGeneral MedicineExecutive functionsmedicine.diseaseSettore MED/39 - Neuropsichiatria InfantileCross-Sectional StudiesPediatrics Perinatology and Child HealthAdolescents Children Epilepsy Executive function Social cognition Theory of mindFemaleObservational studyEpilepsies PartialNeurology (clinical)Psychology030217 neurology & neurosurgeryPartialClinical psychology

description

Objectives: Deficits in facial emotion recognition and Theory of Mind are frequent in patients with epilepsy. Although this evidence, studies on pediatric age are few and the relation between these abilities and other cognitive domain remains to be better elucidated. The purpose of our study is to evaluate facial emotion recognition and Theory of Mind in children and adolescents with focal epilepsy, and correlate them with intelligence and executive functions. Materials and methods: Our work is a cross-sectional observational study. Sixty-two children and adolescents aged between 7-16 years diagnosed by focal epilepsy and 32 sex/age-matched controls were recruited. All participants were administered a standardized battery tests to assess social cognition (NEPSY-II), executive functions (EpiTrack Junior) and cognitive non-verbal level (Raven Progressive Matrices). Results: Emotion recognition mean score was significantly lower in the epilepsy group than in the controls to Student's t-test (p<0.05). Epilepsy group showed an impairment in happiness, sadness, anger and fear recognition, compared to controls (p<0.05). Theory of Mind mean score was also significantly lower in epilepsy group than controls (p<0.05). Deficits in emotion recognition seemed to be related to low age at onset of epilepsy, long duration of disease, low executive functions and low non-verbal intelligence. Deficits in Theory of Mind seemed to be related to a high seizure frequency. Conclusions: Our results suggest that children and adolescents with focal epilepsy had deficit in facial emotion recognition and Theory of Mind, compared to their peer. Both these difficulties seem to be related to some features of epilepsy itself. Our results also suggest that deficits in facial emotion recognition are potentially related to difficulties in executive functions and non-verbal intelligence. More studies are needed to confirm these hypotheses.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2020-01-01European Journal of Paediatric Neurology
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpn.2020.06.019