Drost Rolinda, Postma Albert, Oudman Erik
Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Slingedael Korsakoff Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2019 Jun;31(3):128-134. doi: 10.1017/neu.2018.35. Epub 2018 Dec 18.
Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) is a chronic neuropsychiatric disorder characterised by severe anterograde amnesia and executive deficits. Theory of Mind (ToM) is the capacity to represent others' mental states such as their knowledge, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and intentions in order to explain and predict their behaviour. Surprisingly this topic has received hardly any attention in research on KS, although the severity of behavioural problems in KS suggest possible ToM difficulties. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess whether cognitive and affective ToM are impaired in patients with KS.
We examined 21 KS patients and 21 age- and gender-matched healthy controls on three standardised tests that assess cognitive and affective ToM, including the subtests of the mini-Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment battery and a specialised version of the Sally-Anne Test.
KS patients showed largely impaired cognitive and affective ToM compared to healthy controls, as reflected in large effect sizes on both cognitive and affective ToM tests. Executive deficits explained problems in emotion recognition, but not other ToM aspects.
KS patients have large impairments in both cognitive and affective aspects of social cognition. Their ability to recognise emotions, take the perspective of others, and understand socially awkward situations is vastly compromised. The impairments in ToM functioning are to a large degree functionally discrepant from executive disorders that are commonly present in KS. This study therefore highlights the importance to properly index ToM functioning in neuropsychological assessments for individuals with a possible KS diagnosis.
柯萨科夫综合征（KS）是一种慢性神经精神障碍，其特征为严重的顺行性遗忘和执行功能缺陷。心理理论（ToM）是指表征他人心理状态（如他们的知识、思想、情感、信念和意图）以解释和预测其行为的能力。令人惊讶的是，尽管KS患者行为问题的严重程度表明可能存在心理理论困难，但该主题在KS研究中几乎未受到任何关注。因此，本研究的目的是评估KS患者的认知和情感心理理论是否受损。
我们对21名KS患者和21名年龄及性别匹配的健康对照者进行了三项标准化测试，这些测试评估认知和情感心理理论，包括迷你社会认知与情感评估量表的子测试以及莎莉 - 安妮测试的一个专门版本。
与健康对照者相比，KS患者的认知和情感心理理论在很大程度上受损，这反映在认知和情感心理理论测试中的大效应量上。执行功能缺陷解释了情绪识别方面的问题，但不能解释心理理论的其他方面。
KS患者在社会认知的认知和情感方面均有严重损害。他们识别情绪、设身处地为他人着想以及理解社交尴尬情境的能力受到极大损害。心理理论功能的损害在很大程度上与KS中常见的执行功能障碍在功能上不一致。因此，本研究强调了在对可能诊断为KS的个体进行神经心理学评估时正确评估心理理论功能的重要性。
