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Migraine and epilepsy: Social cognition skills in pediatric population
Francesca Felicia Operto1, Chiara Scuoppo1, Chiara Padovano1
1Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy.
Insights
Children with migraine or epilepsy show lower social cognition skills, including emotion recognition and theory of mind, compared to typically developing peers. These deficits are linked to executive function impairments.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Neurology
Background:
- Social cognition is crucial for social interaction.
- Migraine and epilepsy are common chronic neurological conditions in children.
- Understanding social cognition in these pediatric populations is important for their development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare social cognition skills in children with migraine or epilepsy versus typically developing children.
- To investigate the relationship between social cognition and executive/cognitive functions in these groups.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional observational study.
- 119 children with migraine or focal epilepsy and 61 typically developing peers (aged 6-16).
- Neuropsychological evaluation including Theory of Mind (TM), Emotion Recognition (ER), executive function, and cognitive abilities.
Main Results:
- Children with migraine or epilepsy had significantly lower scores in ER and TM compared to typically developing peers.
- No significant difference in social cognition scores between migraine and epilepsy groups.
- Social cognition skills were significantly related to executive functions.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric migraine and epilepsy are associated with social cognition difficulties.
- Executive function deficits may underlie these social cognition impairments.
- Monitoring cognitive abilities in pediatric patients with migraine or epilepsy is recommended.
Introduction:
The goal of the present study was to comparatively analyze Social Cognition skills in a pediatric population diagnosed with Migraine or Epilepsy, compared to Typically Developing children (TD). The secondary aim was to relate Social Cognition skills with other migraine- or epilepsy-related variables and with executive and cognitive functions.
Materials And Methods:
In our cross-sectional observational study 119 children and adolescents (aged 6-16) with Migraine or Focal Epilepsy and 61 TD peers were recruited. Both the clinical groups and TD peers performed a neuropsychological evaluation through standardized test to assess Theory of Mind (TM), Emotion Recognition through facial expression (ER), executive function and non-verbal cognitive abilities.
Results:
Children and adolescents with Migraine or Focal Epilepsy showed comparable scores between each other, however their scores were significantly lower than their TD peers, in both ER and TM. Social Cognition skills were significantly related to executive functions.
Conclusion:
Our study suggests that some chronic neurological conditions in childhood, such as Migraine and Epilepsy, may be associated with difficulties in Social Cognition skills, and that these difficulties may be related to a deficit in executive functions. The relationship between these two higher cognitive abilities should be further explored in future studies. Our results also suggest the importance of monitoring cognitive abilities in pediatric patients with Migraine or Epilepsy, in order to detect early impairment and ensure the necessary support.
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