Theory of mind abilities in patients with psychogenic nonepileptic seizures
| Autor: | Sarah V. Mayer, Michael Schönenberg, Martin Hautzinger, Caroline Schell, Yvonne G. Weber, Aiste Jusyte, Nina Maria Höhnle |
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| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Adolescent media_common.quotation_subject Emotions Theory of Mind Anger Developmental psychology Behavioral Neuroscience Alexithymia Social cognition Seizures Surveys and Questionnaires medicine Psychogenic disease Humans Affective Symptoms media_common Facial expression Awareness Middle Aged medicine.disease Disgust Sadness Facial Expression Neurology Mentalization Case-Control Studies Female Perception Neurology (clinical) Psychology |
| Zdroj: | Epilepsybehavior : EB. 53 |
| ISSN: | 1525-5069 |
| Popis: | Background Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES) have been frequently linked to deficits in affect regulation and altered processing of emotionally salient information. However, less is known about how patients suffering from PNES actually process and interpret affective social stimuli. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate basal facial affect recognition as well as mind-reading skills in a sample of patients with PNES and matched control subjects. Methods Patients with PNES (N = 15) and healthy controls (N = 15) completed self-report questionnaires that measured alexithymia and perceived stress vulnerability. Affect perception was tested using a series of computerized movies of models whose facial expressions slowly change from neutral to full-blown emotions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, and surprise), allowing for a fine-grained assessment of facial emotion recognition impairments. Further, all participants were presented with the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition, a well-validated video-based test for the evaluation of subtle mind-reading deficits. Results Data analyses revealed increased alexithymic traits and, impaired mentalizing skills in individuals with PNES, while basal facial expression recognition was not compromised. Discussion The present findings are the first to demonstrate that patients with PNES exhibit several deficits in reasoning about their own and other people's mental states. Patients with PNES may benefit from psychotherapeutic interventions that focus on disturbed affect regulation and aim to enhance emotional awareness. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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