Are you angry? Neural basis of impaired facial expression recognition in pre-manifest Huntington's

H Diana Rosas; Lydia Lewis; Natalie Connors; Nathaniel D Mercaldo; Shahin Nasr

doi:10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105289

Are you angry? Neural basis of impaired facial expression recognition in pre-manifest Huntington's

Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2023 Apr:109:105289. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2023.105289. Epub 2023 Jan 20.

Authors

H Diana Rosas¹, Lydia Lewis², Natalie Connors², Nathaniel D Mercaldo³, Shahin Nasr⁴

Affiliations

¹ Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Center for Neuroimaging of Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA. Electronic address: rosas@helix.mgh.harvard.edu.
² Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Center for Neuroimaging of Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
³ Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Center for Neuroimaging of Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Center for Neuroimaging of Aging and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.

Abstract

Introduction: Early non-motor symptoms in Huntington's disease (HD), including visual perceptual difficulties, can have profound negative impacts on quality of life. In particular, deficits in emotion recognition may contribute to misinterpretation of social cues, and may adversely affect interpersonal relationships, work relationships and/or general well-being. This may be particularly salient during the pre-manifest period, a period prior to the onset of motor symptoms. We sought to evaluate impairments in emotion recognition in gene-positive individuals who did not meet criterial for a diagnosis of HD; we also sought to determine associations between emotion recognition processing and altered cortico-striatal circuitry.

Methods: We used a standardized battery to evaluate performance on a facial expression recognition task in a cohort of motor pre-manifest HD (Pre-HD) individuals (N = 21). Functional MRI (fMRI) was then used to assess the face processing network in a subset (N = 15).

Results: We found significantly decreased response accuracy to certain facial expressions, particularly of negative emotions (p < 0.001) in Pre-HDs. When Pre-HDs viewed faces with different emotions, activation within the Superior Temporal Sulcus (fSTS) was reduced compared to controls; in contrast, the level of evoked response within other face-selective cortical regions was comparable.

Conclusion: Early deficits in emotion recognition in Pre-HD appear to be associated with alterations in the fSTS response, a distinctly different pathway from that involved in face perception and provide support for early cognitive and behavioral interventions.

Keywords: Cognitive rehabilitation; Impaired emotion processing; Pre-manifest Huntington's disease; Superior temporal sulcus.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Emotions / physiology
Facial Expression
Facial Recognition*
Humans
Huntington Disease* / complications
Huntington Disease* / diagnostic imaging
Quality of Life
Recognition, Psychology

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

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