<p>Affective theory of mind in Parkinson’s disease: the effect of cognitive performance</p>

Abstract

Purpose Among other non-motor symptoms, theory of mind (ToM), the ability to recognize, understand and infer others’ mental states, beliefs, intents and wishes, has been shown to deteriorate during the course of Parkinson’s disease (PD). It has been speculated that ToM impairments could be related to cognitive deficits in PD. However, the current state of literature suggests that there is heterogeneity regarding the involvement of cognitive functioning in the relationship of PD and ToM. The study aimed to measure affective ToM abilities and cognitive performance in a sample of PD patients, to explore the link between affective ToM abilities and cognitive status, and to examine the impact of PD on affective ToM through the mediator effect of cognitive performance. Patients and methods Sixty-five patients diagnosed with idiopathic PD and 51 healthy controls matched for age, gender and educational level completed a visual affective ToM task (Reading the Mind in the Eyes – RMET), cognitive performance was evaluated with Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and psychiatric symptoms were measured with BPRS-E (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale). Results Affective ToM abilities were preserved in early PD patients, declining as the disease progressed. Deficits in cognitive functioning predicted deficiencies in affective ToM. Although attention (AT), executive functions (EF) and visuospatial abilities (VSA) together mediated the relationship between PD and affective ToM, only VSA impairment had a specific negative impact on affective ToM. Moreover, 41% of the total effect of attention and executive functions on affective ToM was mediated by visuospatial skills. Conclusion Cognitive performance may have an impact on the relationship between PD and affective ToM through the involvement of VSA. The influence of AT and EF in this relationship appears to be also exerted by PD patients’ VSA.

<p>Profile Of Patients With Advanced Parkinson’s disease Suitable For Device-Aided Therapies: Restrospective Data Of A Large Cohort Of Romanian Patients</p>

“…Insufficient cooperation leads to a further deterioration of the clinical condition of patients and consequently to the quality of life of both patients and their relatives. [41][42][43] The fact that a significant proportion of patients are in need of institutional care further increases health-care costs. 2 Timely device-aided therapeutical approaches can be a major breakthrough in the quality of life of many APD patients and may prolong the period during which the patient can be cared for within the confines of a family home.…”

Social Cognition in Patients with Early-Onset Parkinson’s Disease

“…Although not all studies have reported affective ToM deficiencies in advanced PD [ 38 ], Poletti et al [ 28 ] and Romosan et al [ 75 ] reported worsening affective ToM ability as the disease progresses. Although we did not find a significant correlation between ToM performance and disease duration, almost half of our sample consisted of patients in H&Y stages 3 and 4, which are considered moderate and advanced stages of PD; this could help to explain our findings.…”

“…Several studies have linked performance of PD patients on affective ToM tasks with other cognitive deficiencies, including visuospatial ability, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory [ 23 , 27 , 75 ]. Although we found that differences in ToM performance between EOPD and controls were not mediated by overall cognitive ability, deficiencies in specific cognitive domains could have impacted performance in our patients.…”

Social and Neurocognitive Deficits in Remitted Patients with Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective and Bipolar Disorder

“…The negative correlations found between BPRS-E scores and MoCA scores (total, attention and memory) suggest that the presence of mild psychiatric symptoms coexists with cognitive impairments regarding attention and memory. The literature data show that while positive psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions have little or no association with cognitive dysfunctions, negative and disorganized symptoms show a stronger relationship with discrete cognitive impairments such as immediate recall, attention, verbal and non-verbal memory, verbal IQ and full-scale IQ [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 ].…”