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Facial emotion recognition and its relationship to cognition and depressive symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 March 2016

J. Pietschnig
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
L. Schröder
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
I. Ratheiser
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
I. Kryspin-Exner
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
M. Pflüger
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
D. Moser
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
E. Auff
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
W. Pirker
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria Department of Neurology, Wilhelminenspital Wien, Vienna, Austria
G. Pusswald
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
J. Lehrner*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Ass. Prof. Priv. Doz. Mag. Dr J. Lehrner, Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18–20, A-1097 Wien, Austria. Phone: +0043-1-40400-31090; Fax: +0043-1-40400-31410. Email: johann.lehrner@meduniwien.ac.at.

Abstract

Background:

Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been detected in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Presently, we aim at assessing differences in emotion recognition performance in PD patient groups with and without mild forms of cognitive impairment (MCI) compared to healthy controls.

Methods:

Performance on a concise emotion recognition test battery (VERT-K) of three groups of 97 PD patients was compared with an age-equivalent sample of 168 healthy controls. Patients were categorized into groups according to two well-established classifications of MCI according to Petersen's (cognitively intact vs. amnestic MCI, aMCI, vs. non-amnestic MCI, non-aMCI) and Litvan's (cognitively intact vs. single-domain MCI, sMCI, vs. multi-domain MCI, mMCI) criteria. Patients and controls underwent individual assessments using a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery examining attention, executive functioning, language, and memory (Neuropsychological Test Battery Vienna, NTBV), the Beck Depression Inventory, and a measure of premorbid IQ (WST).

Results:

Cognitively intact PD patients and patients with MCI in PD (PD-MCI) showed significantly worse emotion recognition performance when compared to healthy controls. Between-groups effect sizes were substantial, showing non-trivial effects in all comparisons (Cohen's ds from 0.31 to 1.22). Moreover, emotion recognition performance was higher in women, positively associated with premorbid IQ and negatively associated with age. Depressive symptoms were not related to FER.

Conclusions:

The present investigation yields further evidence for impaired FER in PD. Interestingly, our data suggest FER deficits even in cognitively intact PD patients indicating FER dysfunction prior to the development of overt cognitive dysfunction. Age showed a negative association whereas IQ showed a positive association with FER.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International Psychogeriatric Association 2016 

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