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.