Neurocognitive impairment and social cognition in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Purpose/aim of the study

The impairment of neurocognitive functions occurs in all subtypes of multiple sclerosis, even from the earliest stages of the disease. Commonly reported manifestations of cognitive impairment include deficits in attention, conceptual reasoning, processing efficiency, information processing speed, memory (episodic and working), verbal fluency (language), and executive functions. Multiple sclerosis patients also suffer from social cognition impairment, which affects their social functioning. The objective of the current paper is to assess the effect of neurocognitive impairment and its potential correlation with social cognition performance and impairment in multiple sclerosis patients.

Materials and methods

An overview of the available-to-date literature on neurocognitive impairment and social cognition performance in multiple sclerosis patients by disease subtype was performed.

Results

It is not clear if social cognition impairment occurs independently or secondarily to neurocognitive impairment. There are associations of variable strengths between neurocognitive and social cognition deficits and their neural basis is increasingly investigated.

Conclusions

The prompt detection of neurocognitive predictors of social cognition impairment that may be applicable to all multiple sclerosis subtypes and intervention are crucial to prevent further neural and social cognition decline in multiple sclerosis patients.

Keywords:

• Multiple sclerosis
• social cognition
• neurocognitive function
• cognitive impairment

Acknowledgments

Zeincro SA is acknowledged for medical writing support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

None.