23/05/19
Speaker: Valentina Pacella
The reduced capacity to identify or realistically judge one’s own deficits and abilities is known as Anosognosia (a, without; noso, disease; gnosia, knowledge). In traumatic brain injured patients (TBI), behavioural deficits are particularly frequent and represent a negative factor in terms of recovery outcome for both autonomy in daily life activities and social interactions. Interestingly, the unawareness for behavioural deficits has been documented in patients who do not show unawareness for other areas of functioning. In contrast, there are no studies investigating the awareness deficits for the Theory of Mind (ToM) impairment, namely the damaged capacity to understand others’ thoughts and emotions and modulate one’s own behaviour basing on them. In this single-case study we overcome this limit by designing a neuropsychological assessment for the ToM deficit and the unawareness specifically related to it. In addition, we perform an in-depth anatomical study, by means of the advanced lesion-symptom mapping and DTI methodologies, which allow us to go over the standard lesion analysis methodology that precludes any insights beyond discrete lesion location.