Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Jun 9.
doi: 10.1111/jnp.70000. Online ahead of print.

Mini social cognition and emotional assessment: Diagnostic performance and neural correlates in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia

Cem Doğdu  1   2 , Neeraj Upadhyay  1   3 , Ingo Frommann  1   2 , Luca Kleineidam  1   2 , Andreas Johnen  4 , Melina Stark  1   2 , Sandra Roeske  1 , Annika Spottke  1   5 , Anna Gamez  1 , Gabor C Petzold  1   6 , Louise Droste Zu Senden  7   8   9 , Julian Hellmann-Regen  7   8   9 , Stefan Hetzer  10 , Klaus Fliessbach  1   2 , Carolin Miklitz  1   2 , Emrah Düzel  11   12   13 , Falk Lüsebrink  11 , Wenzel Glanz  11   12   14 , Stefan Teipel  15   16 , Ingo Kilimann  15   16 , Josef Priller  7   17   18   19 , Eike Jakob Spruth  7   17 , Johannes Prudlo  15   20 , David Mengel  21 , Klaus Scheffler  22 , Matthis Synofzik  21   23 , Anja Schneider  1   2 , Michael Wagner  1   2
Affiliations

Mini social cognition and emotional assessment: Diagnostic performance and neural correlates in behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia

Cem Doğdu et al. J Neuropsychol. .

Abstract

We aimed at validating the Mini Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment (Mini-SEA) in a German cohort of mildly impaired behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients and healthy controls. The Mini-SEA comprises the Facial Emotion Recognition Test (FERT) and the Faux Pas Test (FPT) measuring Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities in social norm-related real-life stories. We examined the diagnostic performance of the Mini-SEA alongside other neuropsychological assessments and investigated its structural neural correlates. We included 32 bvFTD patients and 54 controls in logistic regression models with forward-stepwise selection containing demographics, standard neuropsychological battery (CERAD-NAB+) and the Mini-SEA scores to identify the most relevant variables. Demographic, neuropsychological and daily-life activity associations were explored. Voxel-based morphometry analysis was conducted in a subsample (14 bvFTD and 14 controls) on regions previously linked to emotion processing and ToM functions. The Mini-SEA yielded a very good performance, being in the best-fitting model with a high odds ratio alongside the executive-language and memory measures. Specifically, the FERT indicated the strongest effect in the group differentiation. Mini-SEA showed significant associations with executive-language tests and daily-life activities. In canonical emotion processing brain regions, we found associations of the Mini-SEA composite and the FERT with grey matter volumes in the left insula and lentiform nucleus of putamen. Within ToM regions, associations were found for the Mini-SEA composite and the FPT in cerebellar regions. The German Mini-SEA discriminates well between mildly impaired bvFTD patients and controls. We also demonstrated its significant value for neuropsychological assessment and neuro-behavioural associations in regions underlying emotion processing and ToM.

Keywords: emotions; frontotemporal dementia; neurodegeneration; neuroimaging; social cognition; theory of mind.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. Abell, F., Happe, F., & Frith, U. (2000). Do triangles play tricks? Attribution of mental states to animated shapes in normal and abnormal development. Cognitive Development, 15(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885‐2014(00)00014‐9
    1. Aita, S. L., Beach, J. D., Taylor, S. E., Borgogna, N. C., Harrell, M. N., & Hill, B. D. (2018). Executive, language, or both? An examination of the construct validity of verbal fluency measures. Applied Neuropsychology. Adult, 26(5), 441–451. https://doi.org/10.1080/23279095.2018.1439830
    1. Amunts, J., Camilleri, J. A., Eickhoff, S. B., Heim, S., & Weis, S. (2020). Executive functions predict verbal fluency scores in healthy participants. Scientific Reports, 10, 11141. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598‐020‐65525‐9
    1. Atkinson, R. C., & Shiffrin, R. M. (1971). The control of short‐term memory. Scientific American, 225(2), 82–91.
    1. Barbosa, I. G., Leite, F. D. M. C., Bertoux, M., Guimarães, H. C., Mariano, L. I., Gambogi, L. B., & de Souza, L. C. (2023). Social cognition across bipolar disorder and behavioral‐variant frontotemporal dementia: An exploratory study. Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry, 45, 132–136. https://doi.org/10.47626/1516‐4446‐2022‐2935

LinkOut - more resources