Department of Neurology, University Hospital Knappschaftskrankenhaus, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Faculty of Psychology, Neuropsychological Therapy Centre (NTC), Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2022 Apr;44(3):195-209. doi: 10.1080/13803395.2022.2101619. Epub 2022 Jul 20.
Stroke has been associated with sociocognitive impairment, so far well documented for emotion recognition and Theory of Mind. However, more complex abilities, such as social problem solving, which directly facilitate appropriate behavior in social situations have been neglected in previous research.
The present study aimed to address this gap by focusing on performance-based social problem solving abilities and self-reported socioemotional abilities (i.e., empathy and alexithymia) in outpatient stroke patients (n = 36) compared to a group of healthy controls (n = 36) equivalent on age, gender, and education. In further analyses, potential lateralization effects and correlations between social problem solving/socioemotional functioning and demographic and clinical data were investigated.
In the main analyses, patients were impaired in their ability to freely generate appropriate solutions for challenging interpersonal situations depicted in written scenarios but performed on a comparable level as healthy controls when they had to choose the optimal solution presented amidst a range of less optimal options. While showing difficulty in identifying the awkward elements in the scenarios, the patient group nevertheless rated the degree of discomfort attributed to these elements on a level comparable to the control group. On the self-report measures, stroke patients reported overall higher degrees of alexithymia (i.e., an inability to describe and identify one's own and other persons´ emotions) and more personal distress in response to other individuals´ emotional suffering as assessed by self-report.
The present results suggest that stroke is associated with a broad impact on socioemotional and social problem solving abilities. As difficulties in social problem solving might be associated with increased psychosocial burden they ought to be addressed in stroke rehabilitation.
脑卒中与社会认知障碍有关，到目前为止，情绪识别和心理理论的研究已经得到了很好的证明。然而，在以前的研究中，直接促进在社交情境中采取适当行为的更复杂的能力，如社会问题解决能力，却被忽视了。
本研究旨在通过关注门诊脑卒中患者（n=36）与年龄、性别和教育程度相匹配的健康对照组（n=36）在基于表现的社会问题解决能力和自我报告的社会情感能力（即同理心和述情障碍）方面的表现，来解决这一差距。在进一步的分析中，还调查了社会问题解决/社会情感功能与人口统计学和临床数据之间的潜在偏侧化效应和相关性。
在主要分析中，患者在自由生成书面情景中描绘的具有挑战性的人际情景的适当解决方案的能力受损，但当他们必须从一系列不太理想的选项中选择最佳解决方案时，他们的表现与健康对照组相当。虽然患者组在识别情景中的尴尬元素方面有困难，但他们对这些元素所带来的不适程度的评分与对照组相当。在自我报告的测量中，脑卒中患者报告总体上具有更高程度的述情障碍（即，无法描述和识别自己和他人的情绪），并且在自我报告中，对他人的情感痛苦感到更多的个人困扰。
本研究结果表明，脑卒中与社会情感和社会问题解决能力的广泛受损有关。由于社会问题解决能力的困难可能与增加的心理社会负担有关，因此应该在脑卒中康复中加以解决。
