Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis
Introduction: Recent studies of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have revealed disturbances in distinct components of social cognition, such as impaired mentalizing and empathy. The present study investigated this socio-cognitive profile in MS patients in more detail, by examining their perform...
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doaj-500cb35065384a18a18b7cc3ad650a752020-11-25T00:28:28ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952019-05-011010.3389/fneur.2019.00525434710Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple SclerosisKristína Czekóová0Kristína Czekóová1Daniel Joel Shaw2Daniel Joel Shaw3Kristína Saxunová4Michal Dufek5Radek Mareček6Jiří Vaníček7Milan Brázdil8Milan Brázdil9Behavioral and Social Neuroscience, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Brno, CzechiaInstitute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, CzechiaBehavioral and Social Neuroscience, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Brno, CzechiaDepartment of Psychology, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United KingdomFirst Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University and St. Anne's University Hospital, Brno, CzechiaFirst Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University and St. Anne's University Hospital, Brno, CzechiaMultimodal and Functional Neuroimaging, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Brno, CzechiaDepartment of Imaging Methods, Masaryk University and St. Anne's University Hospital, Brno, CzechiaBehavioral and Social Neuroscience, Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC), Masaryk University, Brno, CzechiaFirst Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University and St. Anne's University Hospital, Brno, CzechiaIntroduction: Recent studies of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have revealed disturbances in distinct components of social cognition, such as impaired mentalizing and empathy. The present study investigated this socio-cognitive profile in MS patients in more detail, by examining their performance on tasks measuring more fundamental components of social cognition and any associated disruptions to gray-matter volume (GMV).Methods: We compared 43 patients with relapse-remitting MS with 43 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) on clinical characteristics (depression, fatigue), cognitive processing speed, and three aspects of low-level social cognition; specifically, imitative tendencies, visual perspective taking, and emotion recognition. Using voxel-based morphometry, we then explored relationships between GMV and these clinical and behavioral measures.Results: Patients exhibited significantly slower processing speed, poorer perspective taking, and less imitation compared with HCs. These impairments were related to reduced GMV throughout the putamen, thalami, and anterior insula, predominantly in the left hemisphere. Surprisingly, differences between the groups in emotion recognition were not significant.Conclusion: Less imitation and poorer perspective taking indicate a cognitive self-bias when faced with conflicting self- and other-representations. This suggests that impaired self-other distinction, and an associated subcortical pattern of GM atrophy, might underlie the socio-cognitive disturbances observed in MS.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2019.00525/fullmultiple sclerosissocial cognitionself-other distinctionautomatic imitationvisual perspective takingvoxel-based morphometry |
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DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Kristína Czekóová Kristína Czekóová Daniel Joel Shaw Daniel Joel Shaw Kristína Saxunová Michal Dufek Radek Mareček Jiří Vaníček Milan Brázdil Milan Brázdil |
spellingShingle |
Kristína Czekóová Kristína Czekóová Daniel Joel Shaw Daniel Joel Shaw Kristína Saxunová Michal Dufek Radek Mareček Jiří Vaníček Milan Brázdil Milan Brázdil Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis Frontiers in Neurology multiple sclerosis social cognition self-other distinction automatic imitation visual perspective taking voxel-based morphometry |
author_facet |
Kristína Czekóová Kristína Czekóová Daniel Joel Shaw Daniel Joel Shaw Kristína Saxunová Michal Dufek Radek Mareček Jiří Vaníček Milan Brázdil Milan Brázdil |
author_sort |
Kristína Czekóová |
title |
Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis |
title_short |
Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis |
title_full |
Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis |
title_fullStr |
Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impaired Self-Other Distinction and Subcortical Gray-Matter Alterations Characterize Socio-Cognitive Disturbances in Multiple Sclerosis |
title_sort |
impaired self-other distinction and subcortical gray-matter alterations characterize socio-cognitive disturbances in multiple sclerosis |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
series |
Frontiers in Neurology |
issn |
1664-2295 |
publishDate |
2019-05-01 |
description |
Introduction: Recent studies of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have revealed disturbances in distinct components of social cognition, such as impaired mentalizing and empathy. The present study investigated this socio-cognitive profile in MS patients in more detail, by examining their performance on tasks measuring more fundamental components of social cognition and any associated disruptions to gray-matter volume (GMV).Methods: We compared 43 patients with relapse-remitting MS with 43 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) on clinical characteristics (depression, fatigue), cognitive processing speed, and three aspects of low-level social cognition; specifically, imitative tendencies, visual perspective taking, and emotion recognition. Using voxel-based morphometry, we then explored relationships between GMV and these clinical and behavioral measures.Results: Patients exhibited significantly slower processing speed, poorer perspective taking, and less imitation compared with HCs. These impairments were related to reduced GMV throughout the putamen, thalami, and anterior insula, predominantly in the left hemisphere. Surprisingly, differences between the groups in emotion recognition were not significant.Conclusion: Less imitation and poorer perspective taking indicate a cognitive self-bias when faced with conflicting self- and other-representations. This suggests that impaired self-other distinction, and an associated subcortical pattern of GM atrophy, might underlie the socio-cognitive disturbances observed in MS. |
topic |
multiple sclerosis social cognition self-other distinction automatic imitation visual perspective taking voxel-based morphometry |
url |
https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2019.00525/full |
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