Social cognition in childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes

Social cognition is involved in the perception, processing, and interpretation of social information. For this reason, social cognition is a crucial domain for successful communication and interpersonal relationships. With this in mind, we aimed to assess social cognition in children with Self-Limited Childhood Epilepsy with Centrotemporal Spikes (CECTS) and its association with traditional executive function tests and clinical variables of epilepsy.

We evaluated 23 patients with CECTS (65% male, mean age of 10.64 years) and 20 healthy children (75% male, mean age of 10.15 years). We used the Faux-Pas Child Task (FP) to analyze social cognition and a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests to evaluate domains of classic executive functions.

Patients with CECTS had impairments in FP compared to healthy children [p < 0.001]. Impairments in some areas of traditional executive functions were related to worse social cognition in patients with CECTS. Epilepsy-related factors did not impair the performance on FP, except for the number of antiseizure medication [p = 0.016].

Social cognition is impaired in children and adolescents with CECTS. The presence of ongoing seizures and frequent epileptiform activity were not correlated with social cognition. Therefore, epilepsy per se was more relevant for social cognition than its severity.