Toward social neuropsychology of epilepsy: a meta-analysis on social cognition in epilepsy phenotypes and a critical narrative review on assessment methods

Abstract Background The aim of this review is to (a) characterize social cognition impairments in the domains emotion recognition (ER) and theory mind (ToM) patients with epilepsy (b) assessment tools a focus on their validity usability clinical practice. Methods An electronic search for studies investigating populations vs healthy control subjects (HC) yielded 53 meta-analysis descriptive review. Results suggest that (1) significantly impaired temporal lobe (TLE), frontal (FLE) not originating within or lobes including idiopathic generalized epilepsies (eTLE/eFLE); (2) there no significant difference between eTLE/eFLE TLE regarding ER, while FLE perform worse than those eTLE/eFLE, without differences ToM ability. A analysis most commonly used stimulus material field revealed lack ecological validity, usability, economic viability everyday Conclusions Our shows are at increased risk deficits cognition. However, underlying multifactorial mechanisms remain unclear. Future research should therefore specifically address impairment processing methodological problems testing.