SynthesisFrontiers in psychiatry2022
Theory of Mind and Empathy in Adults With Epilepsy: A Meta-Analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Empathy in Adults with Acquired Brain Injury: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2026Pooled it
- Social cognition in children and adolescents with epilepsy: A meta-analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Teaching empathy in Balint groups.The Libyan journal of medicine · 2026Article
- Theory of mind in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.Epilepsia · 2026Article
- Navigating Social Waters: Understanding Theory-of-Mind Challenges in Patients with Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Factors influencing quality of life in extratemporal lobe epilepsy and mesial temporal lobe epilepsy: a cross-sectional study using medical records.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mounting evidence suggests that social cognitive abilities [including theory of mind (ToM) and empathy] are impaired in adult patients with epilepsy. Although the deficits in overall ToM in epilepsy have been documented well, the effects of epilepsy on empathic ability and specific subcomponents of ToM remain unclear. The primary aim of this study was to provide the first meta-analytic integration of ToM and empathy in adult patients with epilepsy, and to decompose these constructs to clearly differentiate their distinct (cognitive ToM and affective empathy) and overlapping (affective ToM/cognitive empathy) components. This meta-analysis included 28 studies. Adult patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) showed impairments in cognitive ToM and affective ToM/cognitive empathy compared to the healthy controls (HCs); no group differences were identified for affective empathy. Besides, cognitive ToM was impaired in adult patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE) and focal seizures (caused by epileptogenic foci) outside the temporal and frontal lobes (extra-TLE/FLE) and no group differences were evident for affective ToM/cognitive empathy compared to the HCs. Moreover, relative to the HCs, no group differences were identified for affective empathy in adult patients with IGE. Additionally, no (statistically) significant difference was observed between the magnitude of ToM/empathy impairment in adult patients who underwent and those who did not undergo epilepsy surgery. These quantitative findings suggest differential impairment of the core aspects of social cognitive processing in adult patients with epilepsy, which may contribute to the development of structured cognitive interventions (i.e., social cognitive training) for adult patients with epilepsy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.