Social cognition in adolescents and adults with ADHD

Social cognition refers to the ability to understand the feelings of other people. It covers basic processes like the perception and recognition of emotion from faces, gestures and verbal intonation (prosody) as well as more complex processes such as the ability to understand other peoples’ feelings, thoughts, expectations and beliefs (theory of mind: ToM), empathy and humor. Whereas deficits in social cognition are extensively reported in many populations like in autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or after frontal lobe brain damage, there is surprisingly little literature about social cognition in patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), especially in adolescence and adulthood. However, there are good reasons to believe that adolescents and adult patients with ADHD have impairments in social cognition, since observable social impairments are repeatedly reported in patients with ADHD. The objective of this study is to determine whether adolescents and adults with ADHD show impairments in affective and complex social cognition, and whether these impairments change with age (cross-sectional). We furthermore explore the relationship with executive functions and social functioning. Neuropsychological assessments are conducted in patients with ADHD and matched control participants without ADHD.

Main project

This project is part of project "Social cognition and social skills in ADHD and ASD".

Researchers and partners

Behavioural and Social Sciences, Psychology

Drs. A.E. (Anne) den Heijer, Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology
Prof. Dr. O.M. (Oliver) Tucha, Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology
Dr. Y. (Yvonne) Groen, Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology
Dr. A.B.M. (Anselm) Fuermaier, Clinical and Developmental Neuropsychology

University of Groningen, outside of Behavioural and Socials Sciences

Education

Selection of BA and MA student projects

Social cognition in adolescents/adults with ADHD