title: Assessment of Social Cognition and Theory of Mind: Initial Validation of the Geneva Social Cognition Scale.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Social cognition is widely studied in neurology. At present, such evaluations are designed for research or for specific diseases and simple general clinical tools are lacking. We propose a clinical evaluation tool for social cognition, the Geneva Social Cognition Scale (GeSoCS).
  
  
  METHODS
  The GeSoCS is a 100-point scale composed of 6 subtests (theory of mind stories, recognition of social emotions, false beliefs, inferences, absurdity judgement and planning abilities) chosen from different validated tests of social and cognitive evaluation. Eighty-four patients with neurological disorders and 52 controls participated in the study. Evaluation duration lasted 20-60 min.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean scores were 92.6 ± 4.5 for controls and 76.5 ± 15.3 for patients and differentiate patients and controls in all subtests. With a cut-off score of 84, the scale had a sensitivity of 62% and a specificity of 94%. In our stroke subgroup, right CVAs failed in cartoons, inferences, 'mind in the eyes', and in the temporal rule task while left CVAs were impaired in verbal/discourse tasks (social cognition, inferences, absurd stories, and cartoons.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The GeSoCS is a medium duration assessment tool that appears to detect and characterize significant social impairment in neurological patients.
authors.affiliation: Neuropsychology Unit and Laboratory of Experimental Neuropsychology, Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marie-Dominique
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Martory
authors.forename: Alan John
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Pegna
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sheybani
authors.forename: Mélanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Métral
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bernasconi Pertusio
authors.forename: Jean-Marie
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Annoni
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012919:Social Behavior; D066107:Social Skills; D056345:Theory of Mind