This exploratory study examines the effects of nonviolent communication (NVC) practice on social skills and self-reported quality-of-life variables. Using a combination of implicit and explicit measures, this study evaluates whether NVC expertise leads to improvements in cognitive, emotional, and quality-of-life metrics. Participants included beginners (N = 53) and experts (N = 30) in NVC. Evaluations spanned spontaneous emotional identification, causal attribution, visuo-spatial perspective-taking, personality dimensions (French Big Five Inventory), emotional expression categorization, mentalizing, relationship closeness, social power, and quality of life. Analysis involved Bayesian model selection to identify group effects, with additional stratifications for age, sex, and group interactions. NVC expertise was associated with three main effects. Experts demonstrated lower levels of neuroticism and higher levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness compared to beginners. Male experts were more likely to explicitly reference their adopted perspective and reported higher perceived social power than male beginners. Experts reported reduced daily fatigue and improved restorative sleep compared to beginners, particularly male experts compared to male beginners. Furthermore, significant absence of differences was observed for socio-cognitive skills (e.g. visuo-spatial perspective-taking, and emotional face categorization) or certain dispositional traits (e.g. openness and extraversion). These findings suggest that NVC practice does not directly enhance socio-cognitive abilities but instead influences metacognitive reflection, emotional regulation, and explicit communication. The absence of group effects in certain domains may reflect ceiling effects or the nature of dominant human tendencies in attribution and empathy. NVC offers long-term benefits at the metacognitive level, such as enhanced emotional regulation and clearer communication, while also contributing to reduced fatigue. These findings highlight the value of NVC for enhancing emotional well-being and resilience in social contexts. Future research should investigate these effects with specifically designed tools and explore causal mechanisms underlying gender-specific outcomes.

BACKGROUND:Although prism adaptation (PA) has been applied in spatial neglect (SN) for 27 years, its efficacy remains controversial and lacks consistency. OBJECTIVE:The first aim was to assess the immediate and long-term effects of PA on SN via meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The second aim was to identify potential effect modifiers of PA efficacy. METHODS:We searched four databases up to March 2025 for RCTs comparing PA, or PA+conventional vs. shamPA, or shamPA+conventional, or only conventional in participants with SN, and assessing behavioral or neuropsychological tests (such as Catherine Bergego scale (CBS) and behavioral inattention test (BIT)). Cochrane risk-of-bias assessment tool and random-effects meta-analysis were used, and effect size was reported as Weighted Mean Difference (WMD) with 95 % CI. RESULTS:Only 10 RCTs (356 participants) could be included, eight of them reporting CBS data and six for BIT. Immediate PA effects on SN showed a significant improvement for CBS between the PA group (PA/PA+conventional) and control group (shamPA/ shamPA+conventional/only conventional), all studies with prism shift ≥10°, (WMD = -2.13, 95% CI -3.93 to 0.33; P = 0.020), but non-significance for conventional BIT (BIT-C). Long-term benefit was not significant for CBS, while it was significant for BIT-C when the prism shift was ≥10° (n = 2; WMD = 12.37, 95% CI 0.53 to 24.21; P = 0.041). Linear regressions showed non-significant effect modifiers among the participant characteristics or PA intervention parameters. Subgroup analyses for CBS showed a significant immediate improvement in the larger total quantity of prism exposure (number of total trials × prism shift) subgroup (WMD = -2.73, 95% CI -5.01 to -0.44; P = 0.019), whereas the subgroup with smaller total exposure showed no significant difference. CONCLUSION:Even with stringent inclusion criteria, significant effects of PA on SN were observed in the short-term CBS (all studies with prism shift ≥10°), mainly derived from studies with total exposure ≥11250°·trials. The total quantity of prism exposure (°·trials) may be an applicable effect modifier of PA efficacy. TRIAL REGISTRATION:PROSPERO database (registration number: CRD420250650402).

Perspective-taking is fundamental to social interaction. In line with psychosocial ideas that Eastern societies value the individual’s interdependence, recent experimental work suggests that they are more inclined to endorse another person’s perspective than people from Western countries. There are, however, more cultural differences between those societies than interdependence. Because Eastern societies also sustain a more holistic nature of cognition, people from Eastern countries may simply tend to interpret the surrounding world from a less ego-centred perspective. Direct support for this idea was found when comparing the responses of Japanese and French participants in level-2 visuo-spatial perspective-taking tasks. As predicted, we observed a less egocentric bias in Japanese than in French participants. Crucially, this bias was not caused directly by a greater proportion endorsing the point of view of another person but rather indirectly by a higher disposition to spontaneously adopt non-human-centred perspectives.

Classical social cognitive conceptions suppose that the existence of common representations between agents constitutes the basis that represents the world from others’ perspectives. Alternatively, recent contributions support that the ability to distinguish self- from other’s representation would rather be at the origins of social inferences abilities. In the present study we compared the effects of two types of imitation training: mirror imitation (for which gesture could be represented in common referential) and anatomically congruent imitation (which requires not only a representation of the gesture of the model but also distinguishing between one’s own and others’ representations). We observed that a 4 min training of anatomically congruent imitation, but not of mirror imitation, improved performance on a visual perspective-taking test. This short training did not significantly impact self-reported measures of social cognitive skills. These results suggest that a unique transversal cognitive mechanism of co-representing and switching between self-related and other-related representations could be involved at both the motor and the mental-state levels. Opportunities for innovative social cognitive interventions at the motor level are discussed.

Objective: The first aim was to assess the immediate and long-term effects of prism adaptation (PA) on spatial neglect (SN) via meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The second aim was to identify potential predictive factors of PA efficacy. Methods: We searched 4 databases up to March 2025 for RCTs comparing PA or PA+conventional vs. shamPA or shamPA+conventional or only conventional in participants with SN, and assessing behavioral or neuropsychological tests (such as Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS) and Behavioral Inattention Test (BIT)). Cochrane risk-of-bias assessment tool and random-effects meta-analysis were used, and effect size was reported as Weighted Mean Difference (WMD) with 95%CI. Results: Only 10 RCTs (356 participants) could be included, 8 of them reporting CBS data and 6 for BIT. Immediate PA effects on SN showed a significant improvement for CBS between the PA group and control group (all studies with prism shift ≥10°, WMD= -2.13, 95%CI: [-3.93, -0.33], P<0.05), while non-significance for BIT-C. Long-term benefit was not significant for CBS, while significant for BIT-C when the prism shift was ≥10° (WMD= 12.37, 95%CI: [0.53, 24.21], P<0.05). Linear regressions showed non-significant predictive factors among the participant characteristics or PA intervention parameters. Subgroup analyses for CBS showed a significant immediate improvement in the larger total quantity of prism exposure (number of total trials × prism shift) subgroup (WMD= -2.73, 95%CI: [-5.01, -0.44], P<0.05), whereas subgroup with smaller total exposure showed non-significance. Conclusion: Even with stringent inclusion criteria, robust effects of PA on SN were observed in the short-term CBS (all studies with prism shift ≥10°), mainly derived from studies with total exposure ≥11250°·trials. A significant improvement for long-term BIT-C was observed when the prism shift was ≥10° (n=2, with 4000°·trials and 21600°·trials). The total quantity of prism exposure (°·trials) may be a useful predictive efficacy factor of efficacy. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was supported by the China Scholarship Council, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [grant numbers ANR-23-JSTD-0001, 2023], Inserm, CNRS, Hospices Civils de Lyon, and University Lyon 1. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: This systematic review and meta-analysis used ONLY data from previously published studies that were openly available in peer-reviewed journals before the initiation of this study. All source data were extracted from publicly accessible publications indexed in four databases:PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors

What would a theory of visuospatial perspective taking (VSPT) look like? Here, ten researchers in the field, many with different theoretical viewpoints and empirical approaches, present their consensus on the three big questions we need to answer in order to bring this theory (or these theories) closer.

The terminology used in discussions on mental state attribution is extensive and lacks consistency. In the current paper, experts from various disciplines collaborate to introduce a shared set of concepts and make recommendations regarding future use.

As a key domain of cognition, social cognition abilities are altered in a wide range of clinical groups. Accordingly, many clinical tests and theories of social cognition have been developed these last decades. Contrasting this abundant development from a research perspective, recent evidence suggests that social cognition remains rarely addressed from a clinial perspective. The aim of the present research was to characterize the current practices, representations, and needs linked to social cognition from the perspective of professional neuropsychologists and graduate students. A nationwide survey allowed us to determine the classical field conception of social cognition and its associated symptoms or notions. It also allowed us to quantify practice activities and the use of the different clinical tools available. This study revealed that neuropsychologists lack confidence regarding social cognition assessment and its rehabilitation, and that students are in demand for more knowledge and training. Suggestions of change in practices and dissemination of knowledge are discussed. Considering the importance of social cognition, an extension of initial and continuous training alongside an enrichment of interactions between researchers and clinicians were key recommendations to formulate, as well as the need for a consensual lexicon of current concepts.

Social-cognitive abilities are often affected in developmental, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. However, current assessment tools tend to focus on specific processes and don't fully capture the diversity of this domain, leaving a gap in understanding the developmental links between its sub-components. In this study, we developed a parental questionnaire to evaluate social cognition of children and teenagers aged 3 to 17, drawing on real-life behaviours. Exploratory factor analyses of the 995 responses we collected support a four-factor structure encompassing mentalizing, emotion, social motivation, and prosociality. The psychometric properties of the questionnaire suggest that it provides a detailed assessment of social cognition across a range of ages. If implemented for screening in clinical settings, this tool could significantly reduce diagnostic delays and help guide neuropsychological assessments.

Introduction Les capacités de cognition sociale, sous-tendant les interactions inter-individuelles, se développent durant l’enfance. Elles sont fréquemment altérées dans les pathologies neurodéveloppementales. Peu d’outils d’évaluation standardisée chez l’enfant sont disponibles. Objectifs L’objectif était de développer et valider en langue française un questionnaire de dépistage des troubles de cognition sociale chez l’enfant, couvrant un panel de processus, de passation rapide et aisée. Méthodes Le questionnaire SoCoDev a été développé à partir de notre expertise et des données de la littérature (Quesque et al., 2022). Il est composé de 20 affirmations et exemples, exposant différentes aptitudes de cognition sociale, pour lesquelles la fréquence d’apparition au quotidien est estimée. Il est complété par un des parents de l’enfant (durée 10–15 minutes). L’échantillon total incluait 995 parents d’enfants sans trouble neurologique ou psychiatrique. Leurs données sociodémographiques étaient également recueillies. Résultats L’analyse factorielle et la mise à l’épreuve du modèle supportent une structuration de SoCoDev en 4 facteurs, renvoyant aux notions conceptuelles suivantes de : mentalisation, communication et émotion, motivation sociale et prosociabilité. La consistance interne, la validité convergente du questionnaire SoCoDev étaient satisfaisantes. Des effets du genre, de l’âge de l’enfant, et du niveau d’éducation du parent, sont retrouvés sur les scores moyens de plusieurs facteurs. Des normes pour une utilisation clinique ont été élaborées. Discussion La structuration en 4 facteurs du questionnaire SoCoDev est en adéquation avec les données de la littérature actuelle. Les qualités psychométriques du questionnaire SoCoDev sont satisfaisantes. Les effets des variables démographiques retrouvés ont été décrits précédemment avec d’autres épreuves évaluant des processus similaires. Il est nécessaire de poursuivre la validation auprès d’enfants présentant une pathologie neurodéveloppementale. Conclusion Le questionnaire SoCoDev constitue un nouvel outil de dépistage des troubles de cognition sociale chez l’enfant, validé et normalisé en langue française, facile d’administration, pour une utilisation en pratique clinique.

Introduction:We report a very unique clinical presentation of a patient who complained, after a left parietal brain damage, about feeling tactile stimulations on his right upper limb without being able to localize them.Methods:Using a single case study approach, we report three experiments relying on several custom-made tasks to explore the different levels of somatosensory information processing, ranging from somato-sensation to somato-representation.Results:Our results showed a preserved ability to localize tactile stimuli applied on the right upper limb when using pointing responses while the ability to localize was less efficient when having to name the stimulated part (akin Numbsense). When the stimuli were applied on more distal locations (i.e., on the hand and on fingers), the number of correct responses decreased significantly independently of the modality of response. Finally, when visually presented with a stimulus delivered on the hand of an examiner in synchrony with the stimulation on the hidden hand of the patient, responses were largely influenced by the visual information available. Altogether, the convergence of these different customized tasks revealed an absence of autotopagnosia for motor responses for the right upper limb, associated with altered abilities to discriminate stimulus applied on distal and restricted/closer zones in the hand.Discussion:The somato-representation of our patient seemed to significantly rely on visual information, leading to striking deficits to localize tactile stimuli when vision and somesthesic afferences are discordant. This case report offers a clinical illustration of pathological imbalance between vision and somesthesia. Implications of these troubles in somato-representation on higher cognitive level processes are discussed.

It is well established that extreme prematurity can be associated with cerebellar lesions potentially affecting the neurologic prognosis. One of the commonly observed lesions in these cases is pontocerebellar hypoplasia resulting from prematurity, which can pose challenges in distinguishing it from genetically caused pontocerebellar hypoplasia. This confusion leads to unacceptable and prolonged diagnostic ambiguity for families as well as difficulties in genetic counseling. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the clinical and neuroradiologic features allowing to differentiate between acquired and genetic forms of pontocerebellar hypoplasia in order to guide clinical practices and improve patient care. In this regard, we report in the present manuscript the clinical, developmental, and radiologic characteristics of 19 very premature children (gestational age <28 weeks, now aged 3-14 years) with cerebellar lesions and discuss the causal mechanisms. Our findings support the notion that a combination of specific clinical and radiologic criteria is essential in distinguishing between acquired and genetic forms of pontocerebellar hypoplasia.

Visual illusions have always fascinated people but they have often been confined to the field of entertainment. Although philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists have used them to explore the bases of human perception and to teach about vision, these attractive tools have still remained largely underexploited. The goal of the present paper is to argue that visual illusions can also serve as a powerful medium to question our relation to the world and to others, as they demonstrate that we do not fully perceive reality and that each interpretation of the world may be equally sound. Further, specific 3D visual illusions, such as 3D ambiguous objects that give rise to two specific interpretations, enable the viewer to realize that their perception is tied to their viewing point, and that this may also apply to social cognition and interactions. Specifically, this low-level embodied experience should generalize to other levels and enhance the consideration of others' perspective independently of the type of representations. Therefore, the use of illusions in general, and 3D ambiguous objects in particular, constitutes an avenue for future interventions designed to increase our perspective-taking abilities and the pacification of social relations through mutual understanding, which is particularly relevant in the current era.

Background: Paroxysmal tonic upgaze (PTU), defined as an involuntary upward movement of the eyes, has been considered as a benign phenomenon but may also be associated with ataxia and developmental delay. To date, CACNA1G mutations have been reported in autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia designated SCA42 and in early encephalopathies with cerebellar atrophy but never in periodic childhood manifestations of PTU type.Methods and Results: We report the case of a two-month-old infant with a de novo pathogenic variation of CACNA1G who presented with PTU associated with congenital ataxia and other periodic neurological manifestations.Conclusions: Although the link between CACNA1G mutations and periodic neurological manifestations remains unclear, we provide detailed video documentations of PTU, paroxysmal torticollis, and ataxia in a patient with a CACNA1G mutation. This case allows a better understanding of the underlying mech-anisms of PTU and suggests potential new avenues for clinical treatments.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Previous studies have shown that objects located in the peripersonal space (PPS) receive enhanced attention, as compared with extrapersonal space (EPS), However, most objects in the environment belong to someone in particular and how object ownership influences object coding in relation to PPS representation is still unclear. In the present study, after having chosen their own mug, participants performed a reachability judgement task of self-owned and other-owned mugs presented at different distances while facing a virtual character. This task was followed, on each trial, by a localisation task in which participants had to indicate where the mug, removed from view, was previously located. The two tasks were separated by a 900-ms visual mask during which the virtual character was unnoticeably shifted by 3° to evaluate the spatial frame-of-reference used. The results showed that self-owned mugs were processed faster than other-owned mugs, but only when located in the PPS. Furthermore, reachability judgements were biased for self-owned mugs, leading to an extension of the PPS representation, especially for participants with a high score on the fantasy scale of Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Finally, the virtual character shift altered the localisation performance but only for the distant mugs, suggesting a progressive shift from egocentric to allocentric frame-of-reference when moving from the PPS to EPS, irrespective of object ownership. Overall, our data reveal that the representations of ownership and PPS interact to facilitate the processing of manipulable objects, to an extent that depends on individual sensitivity to the social presence of others.

Pantomime production is commonly interpreted as reflecting tool-use-related cognitive processes. Yet, in everyday life, pantomime deserves a communication function and the exaggeration of amplitude found during pantomime compared to real tool use may reflect the individual's attempt to communicate the intended gesture. Therefore, the question arises about whether pantomime is a communicative behavior that is nevertheless supported only by non-social cognitive processes. We contribute to answering this question by using kinematic analyses. Participants performed the pantomime of using a saw or a hammer from visual presentation in three conditions: Free (no specific instructions), Self (focus on the real tool-use action), and Others (focus on the communicative dimension). Finally, they used the tool with the corresponding object (Actual condition). Participants' social cognition were assessed using gold standard questionnaires. Our results indicated that the manipulation of instructions had a minor effect on the exaggeration of amplitude during pantomime. We reported a link between the social cognition score and the amplitude in the Others condition for the hammer, which suggests that social cognitive processes could take part in pantomime production in some conditions. Nevertheless, this result does not alter our conclusion that social cognitive processes might be far from necessary for pantomime production.

Mentalizing and emotion recognition are impaired in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). It is not clear whether these abilities are also disturbed in other conditions with prominent frontal lobe involvement, such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Our aim was to investigate social cognition (facial emotion recognition, recognition of social norms violation and mentalizing) in bvFTD and PSP. The neural basis of these functions in PSP and bvFTD groups, by analysis of structural neuroimaging, were also investigated. Twenty-three bvFTD patients, 21 PSP patients and 23 healthy controls were included. All participants underwent 3T brain MRI and a full cognitive exam including the short version of Social and Emotional Assessment (Mini-SEA), which is composed of a facial emotion recognition test (FERT) and the faux pas test. Two components of the faux pas test were distinguished: a score assessing the recognition of social norms violation and a score assessing mentalizing. Compared to controls, bvFTD and PSP patients had significantly reduced scores in all tests of social cognition but did not differ on these measures. PSP and bvFTD had cerebral atrophy in critical regions for social cognition processes, when compared to controls. The cortical correlates of emotion recognition partially overlapped in bvFTD and PSP, with correlations retrieved within the frontal medial cortex, cingulate, insula and limbic structures. PSP and bvFTD patients also displayed similar patterns of brain correlations for the composite score of social norms, with a significant cluster in anterior temporal lobes. Mentalizing scores were associated with frontal and temporal poles bilaterally, in both bvFTD and PSP. These findings support previous observations that PSP patients exhibit impairment in complex cognitive abilities, such as mentalizing. Moreover, these data extend previous findings showing that PSP and bvFTD share key clinical, cognitive and neuroimaging features.