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

• Published in: Applied neuropsychology. Adult Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 1039 - 1048
• Main Authors: Rodríguez-Rajo, P., García-Rudolph, A., Sánchez-Carrión, R., Aparicio-López, C., Enseñat-Cantallops, A., García-Molina, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Routledge 03.09.2022
• Subjects: Executive functions; non social cognition; social cognition; theory of mind; traumatic brain injury; traumatic brain injury; Executive functions; non social cognition; social cognition; theory of mind
• ISSN: 2327-9095; 2327-9109
• DOI: 10.1080/23279095.2020.1845171

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. 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). 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). 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.