Complex emotion recognition in neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Clinical Medicine

Background:

• Social cognition deficits are prevalent yet often overlooked in neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions.
• Complex emotion recognition (CER) is vital for social interaction but lacks standardized clinical assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate CER performance in various clinical cohorts using a novel online tool, COSIMO.
• To compare CER scores in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), multiple sclerosis (MS), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and healthy controls (HC), including a healthy older adult group (H65+).

Main Methods:

• Utilized COSIMO, an online assessment tool presenting muted video clips of dyadic interactions to evaluate CER.
• Compared CER scores across six groups: HC (N=455), TLE (N=36), MS (N=64), ASD (N=90), ADHD (N=54), and H65+ (N=35).

Main Results:

• All clinical groups exhibited reduced CER scores compared to HC.
• The most significant CER deficits were observed in ASD (Hedges' g = -1.05), followed by TLE (g = -0.60), H65+ (g = -0.52), MS (g = -0.51), and ADHD (g = -0.50).
• Prevalence of reduced CER scores was highest in ASD (37%), H65+ (28%), and TLE (19%).

Conclusions:

• Complex emotion recognition impairments are widespread across neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly in ASD, TLE, and older adults.
• Routine CER screening is clinically important for these populations.
• The COSIMO test offers a practical method for identifying individuals at risk of social cognitive deficits who could benefit from interventions.