title: When Injury Clouds Understanding of Others: Theory of Mind after Mild TBI in Preschool Children.
abstract: There is evidence to suggest that social skills, such as the ability to understand the perspective of others (theory of mind), may be affected by childhood traumatic brain injuries; however, studies to date have only considered moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aimed to assess theory of mind after early, mild TBI (mTBI). Fifty-one children who sustained mTBI between 18 and 60 months were evaluated 6 months post-injury on emotion and desires reasoning and false-belief understanding tasks. Their results were compared to that of 50 typically developing children. The two groups did not differ on baseline characteristics, except for pre- and post-injury externalizing behavior. The mTBI group obtained poorer scores relative to controls on both the emotion and desires task and the false-belief understanding task, even after controlling for pre-injury externalizing behavior. No correlations were found between TBI injury characteristics and theory of mind. This is the first evidence that mTBI in preschool children is associated with theory of mind difficulties. Reduced perspective taking abilities could be linked with the social impairments that have been shown to arise following TBI.
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychology,University of Montreal,Quebec,Canada.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0746-839X
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bellerose
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychology,University of Montreal,Quebec,Canada.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bernier
authors.affiliation: 2Ste-Justine Hospital Research Center,Montreal,Quebec,Canada.
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beaudoin
authors.affiliation: 2Ste-Justine Hospital Research Center,Montreal,Quebec,Canada.
authors.forename: Jocelyn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gravel
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychology,University of Montreal,Quebec,Canada.
authors.forename: Miriam H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Beauchamp
mesh_terms: D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012938:Social Perception; D066107:Social Skills; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Concussion; Head injury; Outcome; Pediatric; Perspective taking; Social cognition; Social skills