Relationship of Behavioral and Cognitive Abilities in Subjects with Pathological Dissociation: An Exploratory Study

Dissociation is a disruption in the coordinated functioning of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, motor control, and behavior. We aimed to investigate the phenomenon of dissociation and its relationship with neuro-cognitive processes. A cross-sectional study involving adult participants from a Tertiary Neuropsychiatry Center was divided into two groups based on dissociative experience scale (DES) scores followed by mindfulness attention awareness scale (MAAS), and a battery of neuropsychological tests to measure attention, concentration, memory, and other executive functions. Nine participants (22.2% females) with a mean age of 28.2 ± 7.5 years were grouped into extreme pathological dissociation (N = 4), and mild dissociation (N = 5). The total DES scores were significantly higher in subjects with extreme pathological dissociation (24.46 ± 7.3) as compared to those with mild dissociation (9.93 ± 2.58). The Stroop effect [160.4 ± 49 (p = 0.05)] and digit vigilance errors (16 ± 11.1 (p = 0.019) were significantly higher in the mild dissociation group. Further research is required to understand the presence of altered information processing speed and attention in mild dissociation