Altered social cognition in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Renato Oliveira; Gonçalo Diniz de Pinho; Dina Silva; Catarina Chester; Inês Brás Marques

doi:10.1016/j.msard.2023.104924

Altered social cognition in early relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis

Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2023 Oct:78:104924. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.104924. Epub 2023 Jul 30.

Authors

Renato Oliveira¹, Gonçalo Diniz de Pinho², Dina Silva², Catarina Chester², Inês Brás Marques³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; Neuroimmunology clinic, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, Lisbon Portugal; Comprehensive Health Research Centre, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. Electronic address: renato.silva.oliveira@hospitaldaluz.pt.
² Department of Neurology, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
³ Department of Neurology, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; Neuroimmunology clinic, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, Lisbon Portugal.

PMID: 37566975
DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2023.104924

Abstract

Introduction: People with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) may suffer from some degree of impaired social cognition (SC), the process that integrates the mental operations underlying social interactions. SC is still not clearly characterized in the early stages of MS, and it is not defined whether SC is independent of cognitive impairment.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to compare SC measures in a population of early (≤5 years) relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) with an age, sex, and education-matched control group. All participants performed a clinical and a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment. SC evaluation included assessment of facial emotion recognitionn by the Emotion Recognition Task, affective theory of mind (ToM) by the Reading the Mind in the eyes Test (RMET) and cognitive ToM by the Faux Pas test (FPT). Depression, anxiety, fatigue, and quality of life were also assessed. We included 38 pwMS (mean age 34.8 ± 8.7, 78.9% female sex, mean disease duration 1.9±1.3 years) and 38 healthy controls (mean age 34.9 ± 8.4, 81.6% female sex).

Results: Altered social cognition was present in 34.2% of pwMS. Participants with MS performed worse than controls on measures of cognitive ToM, and affective ToM. There were no differences regarding FER. Cognitive ToM and FER correlated with cognitive functions, but no correlation was found between affective ToM and cognitive tests. The only clinical factor associated with altered SC was poor quality of life.

Conclusions: Social cognition impairment is already present in a significant percentage of early RRMS patients, namely ToM deficits. While cognitive ToM and FER appears to correlate with impaired cognitive results, affective ToM is likely independent of other cognitive functions.

Keywords: Cognition; Emotion recognition; Empathy; Multiple sclerosis; Social cognition; Theory of mind.