Domains and measures of social cognition in acquired brain injury: A scoping review

ABSTRACT

In acquired brain injury (ABI), social cognition is a contributing factor to the changes observed in functional outcomes. However, progress in assessing and understanding social cognitive impairments is limited by a lack of consistency in terminology and the proliferation in assessment tools, leading to a lack of consensus on what should be assessed and how. This review aims to examine the domains of social cognition commonly assessed in ABI, the assessment tools used, and the appropriateness of these tools for researchers and clinicians. Using the Arksey and O’Malley scoping review methodology, 367 articles reporting results from 10,930 people with an ABI met our inclusion criteria. The five most commonly assessed domains of social cognition were emotion perception, theory of mind, social communication, identity recognition and empathy. The most commonly used measure of these domains included: the Ekman and Friesen photo series, Faux Pas Recognition Test, La Trobe Communication Questionnaire, Benton Facial Recognition Test and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. There are well-validated measures readily available that are underused in favour of non-standardized measures clinically or the development of one’s own measure in research. The appropriateness of the identified measure for research and clinical use was discussed, including suggestions for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Social cognition
• Acquired brain injury
• Scoping review
• Domains
• Assessment tools

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance of Ms. Debbie Booth in the development and execution of the search strategy. Authors K.W. and S.McRae are supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.

Disclosure statement

The following author reports a financial conflict of interest as an author of an assessment measure recommended in the review from which royalty income is/will be generated: Skye McDonald – The Awareness of Social Inference Test.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.