Reliability of the Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToM TB) to assess social cognition in post-stroke patients

ABSTRACT

Theory of mind is the ability to understand, and infer thoughts or mental states to others. This is a central domain of social cognition that can be impaired after brain injury, resulting in changes in social skills and implications for rehabilitation.

The aim of this investigation was to analyze the reliability of the Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToM TB) in post-stroke patients.

This is a cross-sectional prospective study with psychometric characteristics, involving 38 patients diagnosed with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke assessed by three examiners using the ToM TB scale, translated and adapted to Brazilian Portuguese. Satisfactory levels of interexaminer agreement were found for almost all categories of the ToM TB: Kappa ranged from 0.036 to 1.00, total score (ICC) from 0.958 to 0.999 and a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.658 was obtained with the complete instrument.

The Brazilian version of the ToM TB in post-stroke patients is a reliable instrument that can be used to assess the theory of mind, prognosis and rehabilitation of post-stroke patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognition
• rehabilitation
• stroke
• theory of mind
• validation

Acknowledgments

None.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code [001] and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico (CNPq)- Finance cod [122661/2018-4], under Institutional Program of Scientific Initiation Scholarships (PIBIC) [no funding code].