title: Self-awareness after acquired and traumatic brain injury.
abstract: Self-awareness deficits are common after acquired and (traumatic) brain injury (ABI), particularly in social behaviour, yet the underlying cognitive and neuroanatomical structures supporting social self-awareness are not fully understood. This paper reviews the current literature on prevalence, type and severity of self-awareness deficits in ABI. Neuropsychological and neuroanatomical models are reviewed and theoretical frameworks are examined. We summarise results of a case-control comparison of 20 ABI patients with and 20 ABI patients without behavioural disturbance. Our research found that lack of social self-awareness predicts behavioural disturbance in acquired and traumatic brain injury independent of cognitive and executive function. Theory of mind ability was related to self-awareness and a possible role for metacognition and affective processes in self-awareness is discussed to account for social self-awareness deficits.
authors.affiliation: Lishman Brain Injury Unit, Maudsley Hospital, Denmark Hill, London, UK. l.bach@iop.kcl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.forename: Anthony S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: David
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D001519:Behavior; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012919:Social Behavior