Social Cognition in Chiari Malformation Type I: a Preliminary Characterization.

Social Cognition in Chiari Malformation Type I: a Preliminary Characterization. Cerebellum. 2020 Feb 11;: Authors: García M, Amayra I, López-Paz JF, Martínez O, Lázaro E, Pérez M, Berrocoso S, Al-Rashaida M, Infante J Abstract Chiari malformation type I (CM-I) is a neurological disorder in which cerebellar tonsils are herniated through the foramen magnum into the spinal canal. A wide spectrum of cognitive deficits underlying this pathology has been reported, but the literature about social cognition is insufficient. Clinical research has pointed out the cerebellar role in Theory of Mind (ToM), indicating that there are several disorders with cerebellar pathology that reveal a poorer performance in social cognition tasks. The main purpose of this study is to compare the performance on ToM tasks between CM-I patients and healthy controls. The protocol includes Faux Pas test, Happé's Strange Stories test, Ice-Cream Van task, the FEEL test, and the Word Accentuation Test. In order to eliminate the possible influence of covariables, physical pain and anxious-depressive symptomatology have been controlled for. According to the results, CM-I patients performed worse than matched healthy controls on ToM tasks, except for facial emotion recognition. These differences remained even after controlling for the neuropsychiatric variables and physical pain. Thus, it can be suggested that patients with CM-I are impaired in their social skills ...
Source: Cerebellum - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Cerebellum Source Type: research