Disorders of social cognition and behavior after traumatic brain injury

Abstract

  Disorder of social cognition is one of the important symptoms in the definition of “Kouji-Noukinou-Shougai”. This dysfunction is also thought to be important symptom in the definition of neurocognitive disorder, which is described in DSM-5 recently published. It is suggested that social cognition has its specific neural underpinnings as is in other cognitive function. Therefore even in the case of traumatic brain injury, it would be possible to understand the characteristics of cognitive dysfunction based on the characteristics of brain areas most likely damaged. In this article, brain injury is classified into 2 major types, focal brain injury and diffuse axonal injury. Furthermore cognitive dysfunction caused by the two types of injury is described respectively. Especially, apathy is explained in detail including its definition and underpinning neural circuits.