Influence of hemispheric laterality on Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks after stroke.

Research Objectives: To investigate whether the laterality of post-stroke brain injury influences performance in ToM tasks.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Physiotherapy Outpatient Ambulatory of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Trairi, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (FACISA/UFRN).

Participants: A convenience sample of 41 chronic post-stroke subjects, with ≥18 years-old, without suggestive cognitive deficits by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), were divided into two groups: right hemisphere injury (RHI, n=23) and left hemisphere injury (LHI, n=18).

Interventions: The participants were evaluated in a single session by Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToM TB), adapted to Brazilian Portuguese and validated for individuals with stroke.

Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcome is that the RHI group is more affected in ToM performance than the LHI group. The secondary outcome is the comparative analysis between groups in ToM tasks.

Results: The median age was 62.34 (±13.11) and 62.61 (±13.44) years old for RHI and LHI, respectively; 58.53% of the patients were men and 80.48% had ischemic strokes. Time since ictus (months) was 17 [10.0:48.0] and 36 [20.25:80.0] for RHI and LHI, respectively. Modified Rankin Scale was 2.04 (±0.26) for RHI and 1.94 (±0.22) for LHI. There was no difference between groups in the social cognition assessed by ToM TB (p>0.05), including analysis by item and a total score (p=0,41).

Conclusions: The RHI group had no superiority in the ToM TB tasks when compared to LHI group. Futures studies with neuroimaging are encouraged.

Author(s) Disclosures: No conflict of interests