The Role of Executive Functions in Social Cognition among Children with Down Syndrome: Relationship Patterns

Abstract

Many studies show a link between social cognition, a set of cognitive and emotional abilities applied to social situations, and executive functions in typical developing children. Children with Down syndrome (DS) show deficits both in social cognition and in some subcomponents of executive functions. However this link has barely been studied in this population. The aim of this study is to investigate the links between social cognition and executive functions among children with DS. We administered a battery of social cognition and executive function tasks (six theory of mind tasks, a test of emotion comprehension, and three executive function tasks) to a group of 30 participants with DS between 4 and 12 years of age. The same tasks were administered to a chronological-age control group and to a control group with the same linguistic development level. Results showed that apart from deficits in social cognition and executive function abilities, children with DS displayed a slight improvement with increasing chronological age and language development in those abilities. Correlational analysis suggested that working memory was the only component that remained constant in the relation patterns of the three groups of participants, being the relation patterns similar among participants with DS and the language development control group. A multiple linear regression showed that working memory explained above 50% of the variability of social cognition in DS participants and in language development control group, whereas in the chronological-age control group this component only explained 31% of the variability. These findings, and specifically the link between working memory and social cognition, are discussed on the basis of their theoretical and practical implications for children with DS. We discuss the possibility to use a working memory training to improve social cognition in this population.

Response Inhibition and Interference Suppression in Individuals With Down Syndrome Compared to Typically Developing Children

“…Although the study designs were comparable, contradictory findings emerged. In some studies, the DS group performed significantly worse on the inhibitory task administered compared to the control group (Lanfranchi et al, 2010 ; Schott and Holfelder, 2015 ; Amadó et al, 2016 ). In other studies, no difference emerged (Pennington et al, 2003 ; Cornish et al, 2007 ; Carney et al, 2013 ).…”

Cognitive and affective Theory of Mind in adolescence: developmental aspects and associated neuropsychological variables

“…Working memory is strongly associated with cognitive and affective ToM (e.g., Amadó, Serrat, & Vallès-Majoral, 2016) as ToM development depends on a person's growing ability to keep information in mind which allows for a fair judgment of another person's mental state (Olson, 1993). Working memory activates a network of brain regions which partially overlaps with the ToM network such as the prefrontal cortex, the basal ganglia, and the anterior cingulate cortex (e.g., Brahmbhatt, McAuley, & Barch, 2008;Eriksson, Vogel, Lansner, Bergström, & Nyberg, 2015).…”

A comparison of the function, activity and participation and quality of life between down syndrome children and typically developing children

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