The effects of context processing on social cognition impairments in adults with Aspergers syndrome

Social cognition—the basis of all communicative and otherwise interpersonal relationships—is embedded in specific contextual circumstances which shape intrinsic meanings. This domain is compromised in the autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), including Asperger’s syndrome (AS) (DSM-V). However, the few available reports of social cognition skills in adults with AS have largely neglected the effects of contextual factors. Moreover, previous studies on this population have also failed to simultaneously (a) assess multiple social cognition domains, (b) examine executive functions, (c) follow strict sample selection criteria, and (d) acknowledge the cognitive heterogeneity typical of the disorder. The study presently reviewed (Baez et al., 2012), addressed all these aspects in order to establish the basis of social cognition deficits in adult AS patients. Specifically, we assessed the performance of AS adults in multiple social cognition tasks with different context-processing requirements. The results suggest that social cognition deficits in AS imply a reduced ability to implicitly encode and integrate contextual cues needed to access social meaning. Nevertheless, the patients’ performance was normal when explicit social information was presented or when the situation could be navigated with abstract rules. Here, we review the results of our study and other relevant data, and discuss their implications for the diagnosis and treatment of AS and other neuropsychiatric conditions (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, frontotemporal dementia). Finally, we analyze previous results in the light of a current neurocognitive model of social-context processing.Fil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Australian Research Council; Australi

Dementia in Latin America: An Emergent Silent Tsunami

Recently the Lancet Neurology Commission (Winblad et al., 2016) has provided expert recommendations and highlighted that European Union (EU) is well positioned to take the work lead to prevent and cure the Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and to provide models for care. This panorama strongly contrasts with the one of Latin America. Although there is an evident growing interest in dementia among Latin American countries (LAC) (Lancet, 2015), important barriers in this region involves big challenges to join the fight against dementia. In this article, we identify some key issues regarding dementia diagnosis that could trigger immediate actions in LAC, contrasting them with the EU scenario (Winblad et al., 2016).Fil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Universidad de los Andes; Colombia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe,; Colombia. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chile. Australian Research Council; Australi

How Does Social Context Influence Our Brain and Behavior?

When we interact with others, the context in which our actions take place plays a major role in our behavior. This means that our understanding of objects, words, emotions, and social cues may differ depending on where we encounter them. Here, we explain how context affects daily mental processes, ranging from how people see things to how they behave with others. Then, we present the social context network model. This model explains how people process contextual cues when they interact, through the activity of the frontal, temporal, and insular brain regions. Next, we show that when those brain areas are affected by some diseases, patients find it hard to process contextual cues. Finally, we describe new ways to explore social behavior through brain recordings in daily situations.Fil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad de los Andes; ColombiaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chile. Australian Research Council; Australi

Disarming ex-combatants' minds: Toward situated reintegration process in post-conflict Colombia

Collective violence in the context of armed conflict impacts the economy, health systems, and social stability of affected countries. This is considered a complex phenomenon with interwoven biological, psychological, social, cultural, and political factors. However, most of the research on this topic still lacks suitable established integrative approaches to assess multilevel perspectives. Social, cognitive and affective mental processes (SCAMP) are critical factors that should be considered in multilevel approaches. In this article, we critically discuss some of the classically isolated approaches used in violence research, the absence of successful interventions for ex-combatants reintegration, and the specific neglect of SCAMP in these interventions. We present the case of post-conflict Colombia as a unique opportunity to study the different roots of collective violence, and we call for a more robust and situated approach to understanding of and intervention in this multifaceted phenomenon. In addition, we suggest a two-stage approach for addressing ex-combatants' reintegration programs, which considers the situated nature of post-conflict scenarios and the urgent need for evidence-based interventions. This approach focuses on the comprehensive scientific assessment of specific factors involved in violence exposure and the subsequent design of successful interventions. The implementation of this approach will contribute to the effective reintegration of individuals who have been exposed to extreme violence for more than 50 years.Fil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad de los Andes; ColombiaFil: Santamaria Garcia, Hernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chile. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencias Cognitivas y Traslacional; Argentin

Evaluation of the INECO Frontal Screening and the Frontal Assessment Battery in Peruvian patients with Alzheimer's disease and behavioral variant Frontotemporal dementia

Background: The physicians often confuse the early symptoms of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with Alzheimer dementia (AD), leading to misdiagnosis. There are some cognitive tests to discriminate between AD and behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), and the INECO Frontal Screening (IFS) is a promising test for this purpose. Objective: To assess the performance of the IFS to differentiate patients with AD from patients with bvFTD, compared with the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). Methods: A prospective study with 117 patients of our cognitive unit (35 case-patients with AD, 34 case-patients with bvFTD, and 48 control subjects). They were submitted to the following successive phases of evaluation: 1) screening; 2) dementia diagnosis; and 3) dementia sub-type diagnosis. The IFS and FAB were blind and independently applied by one neurologist to all the participants to end of phase 1 (screening), before to the definitive diagnosis establishment. Results: bvFTD showed a lower performance than AD patients on the IFS total score (F(1, 66) = 70.10, p < 0.01) and FAB total score (F(1, 66) = 17.91, p < 0.01). The IFS and FAB showed a sensitivity of 94.12% (95%CI = 80.3–99.2) and 82.3% (95%CI = 65.4–93.2), and a specificity of 94.2% (95%CI = 80.8–99.3) and 48.5% (95%CI = 31.3, 66.1), respectively. The IFS showed significantly superior discriminatory accuracy than the FAB (AuCIFS = 0.98; AuCFAB = 0.73, p < 0.00001). Conclusion: The IFS is useful for discriminating between AD and bvFTD patients. The performance of the IFS to differentiate patients with AD from patients with bvFTD is greater than FAB.Fil: Custodio, Nilton. Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias; PerúFil: Herrera Perez, Eder. Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias; PerúFil: Lira, David. Instituto Peruano de Neurociencias; PerúFil: Roca, María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt.; ArgentinaFil: Manes, Facundo Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt.; Argentina. Australian Research Council; AustraliaFil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt.; ArgentinaFil: Torralva, Teresa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt | Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva y Traslacional. Fundación Ineco Rosario Sede del Incyt.; Argentina. Australian Research Council; Australi

Inter-individual cognitive variability in children with Asperger's syndrome

Multiple studies have tried to establish the distinctive profile of individuals with Asperger's syndrome (AS). However, recent reports suggest that adults with AS feature heterogeneous cognitive profiles. The present study explores inter-individual variability in children with AS through group comparison and multiple case series analysis. All participants completed an extended battery including measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence, executive functions, theory of mind, and classical neuropsychological tests. Significant group differences were found in theory of mind and other domains related to global information processing. However, the AS group showed high inter-individual variability (both sub- and supra-normal performance) on most cognitive tasks. Furthermore, high fluid intelligence correlated with less general cognitive impairment, high cognitive flexibility, and speed of motor processing. In light of these findings, we propose that children with AS are characterized by a distinct, uneven pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses.Fil: González Gadea, María Luz. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tripicchio, Paula. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Rattazzi del Carril, Alexia. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Universidad Catolica Argentina; Argentina. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Marino, Julián Carlos. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Psicología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Roca, María. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Manes, Facundo Francisco. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; AustriaFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders; Austria. Universidad Autonoma del Caribe; Colombi

Empathy for others' suffering and its mediators in mental health professionals

Empathy is a complex cognitive and affective process that allows humans to experience concern for others, comprehend their emotions, and eventually help them. In addition to studies with healthy subjects and various neuropsychiatric populations, a few reports have examined this domain focusing on mental health workers, whose daily work requires the development of a saliently empathic character. Building on this research line, the present population-based study aimed to (a) assess different dimensions of empathy for pain in mental health workers relative to general-physicians and non-medical workers; and (b) evaluate their relationship with relevant factors, such as moral profile, age, gender, years of experience, and workplace type. Relative to both control groups, mental health workers exhibited higher empathic concern and discomfort for others' suffering, and they favored harsher punishment to harmful actions. Furthermore, this was the only group in which empathy variability was explained by moral judgments, years of experience, and workplace type. Taken together, these results indicate that empathy is continuously at stake in mental health care scenarios, as it can be affected by contextual factors and social contingencies. More generally, they highlight the importance of studying this domain in populations characterized by extreme empathic demands.Fil: Santamaria Garcia, Hernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Laboratorio de Psicología Experimental y Neurociencia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Educación Elemental y Especial; ArgentinaFil: Flichtentrei, Daniel. Intramed; ArgentinaFil: Prats, Lucía María. Intramed; Argentina. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigación Clínica "Norberto Quirno"; ArgentinaFil: Mastandueno, Ricardo. Intramed; ArgentinaFil: Sigman, Mariano. Universidad Torcuato di Tella; ArgentinaFil: Matallana, Diana. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Cetkovich Bakmas, Marcelo Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentin

Your misery is no longer my pleasure: Reduced schadenfreude in Huntington's disease families

Schadenfreude – pleasure at others' misfortunes – has been systematically related to ventral striatum activity. This brain region is affected early in individuals with manifest and pre-manifest Huntington's disease (HD). However, the experience of schadenfreude has not yet been investigated in HD. In this study, 21 manifest HD patients, 19 first-degree asymptomatic relatives, and 23 healthy controls performed an experimental task designed to trigger schadenfreude, envy (another social emotion acting as an affective control condition), and control situations. Both HD patients and first-degree relatives experienced lower schadenfreude in response to others' misfortunes, with no group differences in ratings of envy and control conditions. These results offer unprecedented evidence of a highly specific impairment in reward processing, extending previous reports in manifest and pre-manifest HD individuals. Moreover, these findings suggest that early striatal impairments may be related to reduced feelings of schadenfreude. In sum, our work contributes to the understanding of emotional impairments in early stages of HD, while shedding light on their neural correlates.Fil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Orozco, Janni. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; ColombiaFil: Fittipaldi, María Sol. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Pino, Mariana. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; ColombiaFil: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Autónoma del Caribe; Colombia. Universidad Adolfo Ibañez; Chil

Subliminal presentation of other faces (but not own face) primes behavioral and evoked cortical processing of empathy for pain

Current research on empathy for pain emphasizes the overlap in the neural response between the first-hand experience of pain and its perception in others. However, recent studies suggest that the perception of the pain of others may reflect the processing of a threat or negative arousal rather than an automatic pro-social response. It can thus be suggested that pain processing of other-related, but not self-related, information could imply danger rather than empathy, due to the possible threat represented in the expressions of others (especially if associated with pain stimuli). To test this hypothesis, two experiments considering subliminal stimuli were designed. In Experiment 1, neutral and semantic pain expressions previously primed with own or other faces were presented to participants. When other-face priming was used, only the detection of semantic pain expressions was facilitated. In Experiment 2, pictures with pain and neutral scenarios previously used in ERP and fMRI research were used in a categorization task. Those pictures were primed with own or other faces following the same procedure as in Experiment 1 while ERPs were recorded. Early (N1) and late (P3) cortical responses between pain and no-pain were modulated only in the other-face priming condition. These results support the threat value of pain hypothesis and suggest the necessity for the inclusion of own- versus other-related information in future empathy for pain research.Fil: Ibañez, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Hurtado, Esteban. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Lobos, Alejandro. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Escobar, Josefina. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Trujillo, Natalia. University of Antioquia; ColombiaFil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Huepe, David. Universidad Diego Portales; ChileFil: Manes, Facundo Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Decety, Jean. University of Chicago; Estados Unido

Structural neuroimaging of social cognition in progressive non-fluent aphasia and behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia

Social cognition impairments are pervasive in the frontotemporal dementias (FTD). These deficits would be triggered by (a) basic emotion and face recognition processes as well as by (b) higher level social cognition (e.g., theory of mind, ToM). Both emotional processing and social cognition impairments have been previously reported in the behavioral variant of FTD (bvFTD) and also in other versions of FTDs, including primary progressive aphasia. However, no neuroanatomic comparison between different FTD variants has been performed. We report selective behavioral impairments of face recognition, emotion recognition, and ToM in patients with bvFTD and progressive non-fluent aphasia (PNFA) when compared to controls. Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) shows a classical impairment of mainly orbitofrontal (OFC), anterior cingulate (ACC), insula and lateral temporal cortices in patients. Comparative analysis of regional gray matter related to social cognition deficits (VBM) reveals a differential pattern of fronto-insulo-temporal atrophy in bvFTD and an insulo-temporal involvement in PNFA group. Results suggest that in spite of similar social cognition impairments reported in bvFTD and PNFA, the former represents an inherent ToM affectation whereas in the PNFA these deficits could be related to more basic processes of face and emotion recognition. These results are interpreted in the frame of the fronto-insulo-temporal social context network model (SCNM).Fil: Couto, Juan Blas Marcos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Manes, Facundo Francisco. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Montañés, Patricia. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Matallana, Diana. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Reyes, Pablo. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Velasquez, Marcela. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Yoris Magnago, Adrián Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; ArgentinaFil: Ibáñez Barassi, Agustín Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Favaloro; Argentina. Universidad Diego Portales; Chil