Impaired recognition of facial emotional expressions in Multiple Sclerosis

• Main Authors: Bruno Lenne, Rekha Barthelemy, Jean-Louis Nandrino, Henrique Sequeira, Antonio Pinti, Halima Mecheri, Arnaud Kwiatkowski, Patrick Hautecoeur
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: LED Edizioni Universitarie 2014-04-01
• Series: Neuropsychological Trends
• Subjects: Multiple sclerosis; Emotion facial recognition; Cognition; Alexithymia; Depression
• Online Access: http://www.ledonline.it/NeuropsychologicalTrends/allegati/NeuropsychologicalTrends_15_Lenne.pdf

This study investigated the ability of patients with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) to recognize emotional facial expressions. Cognitive deterioration, depression, alexithymia and facial expression recognition ability were assessed in fifty-five patients and twenty-one controls. Facial expression recognition ability was measured by a forced-choice labeling procedure of five emotional facial expressions (anger, fear, sadness, happiness, none). RRMS patients exhibited a global impairment in the recognition of facial emotion (p=.00049), specifically for anger (p=.01), sadness (p=.0001), and fear, (p=.011). Deficit in emotion recognition was independent from disability (assessed by EDSS score). This deficit was correlated with depression and partially with cognitive deterioration. These results should be discussed in term of global cortico-cortical disconnections.