SANP Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy 2297-7007 2297-6981 EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag AG Farnsburgerstrasse 8 CH-4132 Muttenz 03239 10.4414/sanp.2022.03239 Clinical research highlight Neuropsychology / behavior Social cognition in developmental and adult-onset amnesia: a multiple case-control study Bauer Julia Julia.Bauer@kliniklengg.ch SWITZERLAND Bosshardt Simone Grunwald Thomas Huppertz Hans-Jürgen König Kristina Kohnen Oona Shala Januz Jokeit Hennric h.jokeit@swissepi.ch 01 07 2022 173 04 0 0 Copyright: EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag AG 2022 EMH Schweizerischer Ärzteverlag AG "Swiss Archives of Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychotherapy" is an open access publication of EMH published in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons licence attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives 4.0 International. You are free to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. "Non-commercial" means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. The incorporation of publications in commercial products, the use of publications to advertise for commercial products or services and any other usage that directly or indirectly pursues commercial interests is subject to the express previous consent of the publishing house as part of a written agreement. Please send us your request in writing. Exact indication of the publication from which you would like to reproduce material and detailed information about its intended use help to facilitate and expedite request processing.

Memory disorders due to medial temporal lobe lesions are well documented, but studies on social cognition in patients with amnesia are rare. This study examined social cognitive functioning in three adult amnesic patients. We report on the neurocognitive and social cognitive profiles of two patients with developmental amnesia and a patient with adult-onset amnesia, each due to hypoxic events. All cases were compared to their individual IQ-matched control groups. Both cases with developmental amnesia showed notable deficits in tasks assessing emotion recognition and theory of mind. In comparison, the patient with adult-onset amnesia showed less severe and more circumscribed impairment in social cognition. Our findings suggest that social cognition is at serious risk in patients with amnesia. The deficits may be more pronounced in developmental amnesia with hippocampal lesions compared to adult-onset amnesia. Our findings highlight the importance of examining social cognitive functions in patients with memory impairment to assess the need for therapeutic interventions and counselling of patients and their relatives.