Neuropsychological correlates of theory of mind in chronic migraine.

Abstract

Objective: Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to understand other minds—that is, their beliefs, intentions (cognitive ToM), or emotions (affective ToM)—and its neuropsychological mechanisms in migraine have been poorly investigated. The aim of the study was to explore the deficit of cognitive and affective ToM and its possible associations with cognitive functioning in patients with chronic migraine (CM). Method: Forty participants with CM and 40 age-, education-, and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) underwent clinical assessment, cognitive (the ToM Pictures Sequencing Task and the Advanced Test of ToM) and affective ToM (the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task and the Emotion Attribution Task) tasks, and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. Results: Patients with CM significantly reported a lower performance on tasks assessing ToM compared to HC, with an impairment demonstrated for cognitive ToM. Moreover, patients with CM achieved significantly lower scores on tests assessing cognitive flexibility, planning, abstract reasoning, and long-term memory with respect to HC. ToM abilities were significantly related to migraine severity, executive, and memory functions in CM patients. Conclusions: The findings demonstrated that patients with CM present difficulties in inferring others’ mental states, which would be related to clinical and cognitive functioning. The clinical importance of these findings, implications for clinical practice, and future research are discussed.

Social cognition in Chronic Migraine with Medication Overuse: Do you mind what I think?

“…However, although the two migraine groups were similar in several aspects, a more marked impairment resulted for those with CM + MO with respect to EM in the affective dimension of socio-cognitive abilities. Such results are partially in contrast with Raimo [24] that showed slightly greater di culties of CM for the cognitive component than the affective one. However, in that study [24], CM patients were compared only with HC, and not with EM as we did.…”

“…Such results are partially in contrast with Raimo [24] that showed slightly greater di culties of CM for the cognitive component than the affective one. However, in that study [24], CM patients were compared only with HC, and not with EM as we did. We believe that these affective di culties should be considered in light of the greater levels of alexythimic and autism traits characterizing CM + MO.…”

“…When referring to psychosocial vulnerabilities, it is important to include also all those activity limitations and social-interactions restrictions being impacted by chronic pain [21]. Recent evidence showed an association between migraine and social cognitive functioning [22][23][24], whose decline could be responsible for dysfunctional social behaviors and personal distress. The term "social cognition" is a wide construct that refers to all mental operations that allow to decipher information about the intentions and affective states of social partners [25].…”

“…Bouteloup [22] comparing severe EM and CM patients with healthy controls (HC) found di culties in the clinical populations in social and emotional cognition, which was explained as due to high alexithymic levels. Raimo [24] explored the neuropsychological correlates of ToM and found that CM patients had evident di culties in the cognitive dimension involved in inferring other's mental states. Romozzi [23] compared CM + MO, EM, and HC in complex emotion recognition, knowledge about one's own and other person's mental states, and alexithymic levels and found an impairment in all considered dimensions in CM + MO patients.…”

“…Regarding the ToM construct, one of the main distinctions refers to the affective (i.e., attributions regarding others' emotional mental states) and cognitive (i.e., knowledge of others' mental states such as beliefs, thoughts and intentions) components [37,38]. One might expect these two components to be altered in CM + MO [22][23][24], but to what extent has not been explored yet. As socio-cognitive functioning also includes other aspects, such as di culty in expressing one's emotional states [34], what one thinks about one's abilities in social situations [39], and the perception of social engagement [40], personal beliefs about social interactions represent a further eld of investigation.…”