Social Cognition and Language in Patients With Gliomas

Social Cognition and Language in Patients With Gliomas: Putting Feelings Into Words

Patients with gliomas often suffer from lower quality of life, and detrimental social interactions after diagnosis. Two cognitive processes are crucial for maintaining healthy social relationships and interacting with others: social cognition and language. Social cognition is the ability to recognize and process mental and emotional states and to react appropriately in social situations. Social cognition and language are separate cognitive functions that can be affected in different ways in patients with brain injury. Also, distinct cognitive measurement instruments are used to assess both processes. However, there appears to be a certain overlap between social cognition and language. Reacting adequately in social situations requires both verbal and non-verbal communication and to communicate feelings, thoughts and intentions, people often use language. That is, verbal communication is part of a symbolic system that makes social interaction possible. Therefore, language abilities seem to be important to social cognition. Research shows that language is frequently impaired in adult patients with gliomas. Importantly, recent evidence suggests that social cognition can also be impaired in this patient group. However, no studies have been conducted into the relationship between social cognition and language in patients with gliomas. Increasing knowledge on the overlap between both functions, more specifically the influence of language difficulties on social cognition, will improve diagnostic accuracy. Eventually, this will lead to better, tailor-made treatments for these problems that negatively affect daily functioning.

Objective: The main research objective is to examine the influence of language impairments on different social cognition processes, i.e., emotion recognition, Theory of Mind (ToM) and affective empathy, in patients with (suspected) gliomas. Secondary objectives are 1) to determine if patients with gliomas show impairments in different aspects of social cognition, i.e. emotion recognition, ToM, empathy and self-awareness; 2) to assess specific language impairments by looking at item-level characteristics of language tasks (e.g., analyses of word properties of fluency tasks, errors during object naming or spontaneous speech), and 3) to determine which tumor characteristics (low- or high-grade, genetic mutation, tumor location) are associated with different aspects of language and social cognition.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Cognitive Dysfunction; Glioma, Malignant
• Intervention / Treatment: Diagnostic test: Neuropsychological tests

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 105

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Adult patients with a radiologically suspected glioma, referred for surgery (resection or biopt) in the UMCG, department of Neurosurgery, are eligible for inclusion.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with suspected gliomas, i.e. low- or high-grade gliomas.
• Age older than 18 years
• Sufficient command of the Dutch language
• Being able to understand the instructions of the NPA and to mentally and physically sustain/endure the assessment; this will be assessed in a consultation between treating physician (neurosurgeon) and investigator (neuropsychologist).

Exclusion Criteria:

• Serious neurodegenerative or psychiatric conditions (including addiction)
• Serious (other) medical conditions or physical inability hindering patients to come to the hospital
• Patients who need to undergo emergency craniotomy due to progression of disease

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Impairments in emotion recognition	FEEST	10 minutes
Impairments in Theory of Mind	Cartoons	10 minutes
Impairments in social insight	Faux Pas	10 minutes
Impairments in phonology, semantics, syntaxis	Screeling	10 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in naming	Boston Naming Test	5 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in fluency	Fluency	5 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in language comprehension	SAN	5 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Impairments in memory	Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test	10 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in executive functions	Key Search	2 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in speed and attention	Trail Making Test	5 minutes (total NPA approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in structured spontaneous language	Cookie Theft	5 minutes (total NPO approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in general language	QUEST-NL	5 minutes (total NPO approximately 3 hours)
Impairments in unstructured spontaneous language	Story telling	5 minutes (total NPO approximately 3 hours)
Empathy	Questionnaire filled in by patient and proxy: IRI	Approximately 3 minutes
Social abilities	Questionnaire filled in by patient and proxy: DEX	Approximately 3 minutes
Relationship quality	Questionnaire filled in by patient and proxy: CSI	Approximately 4 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Medical Center Groningen

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): July 1, 2023
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): March 1, 2025
• Study Completion (Anticipated): June 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 25, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 9, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): March 10, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 17, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 16, 2023
• Last Verified: May 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial; Neurocognitive Disorders; Neoplasms, Neuroepithelial; Neuroectodermal Tumors; Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal; Neoplasms, Nerve Tissue; Cognition Disorders; Glioma; Cognitive Dysfunction
• Other Study ID Numbers: 11351 (DAIDS ES)

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No