Clinical usability of the Story-Based Empathy Task (SET) in non-demented ALS patients.
Neurol Sci
; 44(9): 3181-3187, 2023 Sep.
Article
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| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37017748
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
This study aimed at assessing the clinical usability of the Story-Based Empathy Task (SET) in non-demented amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients.METHODS:
N = 106 non-demented ALS patients and N = 101 healthy controls (HCs) were administered the SET, which includes three subtests assessing Emotion Attribution (SET-EA), Intention Attribution (SET-IA) and causal inference (SET-CI) - the latter being a control task. Patients also underwent the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET), the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS) and a thorough behavioural and motor-functional evaluation. The diagnostics of the SET-EA and -IA were tested against a defective performance on the RMET. The association between SET subtests and cognitive/behavioural outcomes was examined net of demographic and motor-functional confounders. Case-control discrimination was explored for each SET subtest.RESULTS:
Demographically adjusted SET-EA and -IA scores accurately detected defective RMET performances at the optimal cutoffs of <3.04 (AUC = .84) and <3.61 (AUC = .88), respectively. By contrast, the SET-CI performed poorly in doing so (AUC = .58). The SET-EA converged with the RMET, as well as with ECAS-Executive and -Memory scores, whilst the SET-IA was unrelated to cognitive measures (including the RMET); the SET-CI was related to the ECAS-Language the ECAS-Executive. SET subscores were unrelated to behavioural outcomes. Only the SET-EA discriminated patients from HCs.CONCLUSIONS:
The SET as a whole should not be addressed as a social-cognitive measure in this population. At variance, its subtest tapping on emotional processing - i.e., the SET-EA - is recommended for use as an estimate of social-cognitive abilities in non-demented ALS patients.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Trastornos del Conocimiento
/
Esclerosis Amiotrófica Lateral
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Neurol Sci
Asunto de la revista:
NEUROLOGIA
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Italia