Mini-SEA

The mini-SEA (mini-Social cognition & Emotional Assessment) is a neuropsychological battery aiming to evaluate the impairment of the social and emotional cognition. Developed by Maxime Bertoux in 2012,^[1] the mini-SEA has been preferentially designed for the assessment, follow-up and diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as the frontotemporal dementia, but is more generally designed to evaluate the integrity of the frontal lobes.

Mini-SEA
Synonyms	mini-Social cognition & Emotional Assessment
Purpose	evaluate the impairment of social and emotional cognition

Constituents of the mini-SEA

The estimation completion time for the mini-SEA is 30 minutes.^[2] The whole battery is composed from two subtests : (1) a reduced and modified version of the Faux-Pas test,^[3] assessing Theory of Mind and (2) a facial emotions recognition test.^[4] Both tests are among the most sensitive and specific tests for the diagnosis of the frontotemporal dementia and accurately discriminate frontotemporal dementia patients from controls or patients with Alzheimer's disease.^[5]

Brain regions involved

The mini-SEA evaluates the frontal lobes dysfunctions, in particular the rostral and dorsal median parts of the prefrontal cortex.^[6][7] The mini-SEA is a simple and fast test to use in clinical practice.^[8][9] and is also presented as a useful clinical tool to assess the sequela of a frontal ataque fulminante or following traumatic brain injury.

References

1. Bertoux M, Delavest M, de Souza LC, Funkiewiez A, Lépine JP, Fossati P, Dubois B, Sarazin M. Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment differentiates frontotemporal dementia from depression. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 2012 Apr;83(4):411-6. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2011-301849.
2. Dickerson B, Atri A. Dementia: Comprehensive Principles and Practices. Oxford University Press, 2014.
3. Stone VE, Baron-Cohen S, Knight RT. Frontal lobe contributions to theory of mind. Journal of Cognitive Neurosciences. 1998 Sep;10(5):640-56.
4. Ekman P, Friesen WV. (1976). Pictures of facial affect. San Francisco, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
5. Bertoux M, Funkiewiez A, O'Callaghan C, Dubois B, Hornberger M. Sensitivity and specificity of ventromedial prefrontal cortex tests in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Alzheimers Dement. 2013 Oct;9(5 Suppl):S84-94. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2012.09.010.
6. Bertoux M, Volle E, Funkiewiez A, de Souza LC, Leclercq D, Dubois B. Social Cognition and Emotional Assessment (SEA) is a marker of medial and orbital frontal functions: a voxel-based morphometry study in behavioral variant of frontotemporal degeneration. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2012 Nov;18(6):972-85. doi: 10.1017/S1355617712001300.
7. Bertoux M, Volle E, de Souza LC, Funkiewiez A, Dubois B, Habert MO. Neural correlates of the mini-SEA (Social cognition and Emotional Assessment) in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Brain Imaging Behav. 2014 Mar;8(1):1-6.
8. Buhl C, Stokholm J, Gade A. Clinical utility of short social cognitive tests in early differentiation of behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia from Alzheimer's disease. Dementia and other Geriatric Cognitive Disorders. 2013 Oct 12;3(1):376-85. doi: 10.1159/000355123.
9. Harciarek M, Cosentino S. Language, executive function and social cognition in the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia syndromes. International Review of Psychiatry, 2013. Vol. 25, No. 2, Pages 178-196.