TY - JOUR
T1 - Apathy Associated with Impaired Recognition of Happy Facial Expressions in Huntington's Disease
AU - Osborne-Crowley, Katherine
AU - Andrews, Sophie C.
AU - Labuschagne, Izelle
AU - Nair, Akshay
AU - Scahill, Rachael
AU - Craufurd, David
AU - Tabrizi, Sarah J.
AU - Stout, Julie C.
AU - the Track On-HD Investigators
PY - 2019/5/1
Y1 - 2019/5/1
N2 - Previous research has demonstrated an association between emotion recognition and apathy in several neurological conditions involving fronto-striatal pathology, including Parkinson's disease and brain injury. In line with these findings, we aimed to determine whether apathetic participants with early Huntington's disease (HD) were more impaired on an emotion recognition task compared to non-apathetic participants and healthy controls. Methods: We included 43 participants from the TRACK-HD study who reported apathy on the Problem Behaviours Assessment - short version (PBA-S), 67 participants who reported no apathy, and 107 controls matched for age, sex, and level of education. During their baseline TRACK-HD visit, participants completed a battery of cognitive and psychological tests including an emotion recognition task, the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS) and were assessed on the PBA-S. Results: Compared to the non-apathetic group and the control group, the apathetic group were impaired on the recognition of happy facial expressions, after controlling for depression symptomology on the HADS and general disease progression (Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale total motor score). This was despite no difference between the apathetic and non-apathetic group on overall cognitive functioning assessed by a cognitive composite score. Conclusions: Impairment of the recognition of happy expressions may be part of the clinical picture of apathy in HD. While shared reliance on frontostriatal pathways may broadly explain associations between emotion recognition and apathy found across several patient groups, further work is needed to determine what relationships exist between recognition of specific emotions, distinct subtypes of apathy and underlying neuropathology. (JINS, 2019, 25, 453-461). Copyright and
AB - Previous research has demonstrated an association between emotion recognition and apathy in several neurological conditions involving fronto-striatal pathology, including Parkinson's disease and brain injury. In line with these findings, we aimed to determine whether apathetic participants with early Huntington's disease (HD) were more impaired on an emotion recognition task compared to non-apathetic participants and healthy controls. Methods: We included 43 participants from the TRACK-HD study who reported apathy on the Problem Behaviours Assessment - short version (PBA-S), 67 participants who reported no apathy, and 107 controls matched for age, sex, and level of education. During their baseline TRACK-HD visit, participants completed a battery of cognitive and psychological tests including an emotion recognition task, the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS) and were assessed on the PBA-S. Results: Compared to the non-apathetic group and the control group, the apathetic group were impaired on the recognition of happy facial expressions, after controlling for depression symptomology on the HADS and general disease progression (Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale total motor score). This was despite no difference between the apathetic and non-apathetic group on overall cognitive functioning assessed by a cognitive composite score. Conclusions: Impairment of the recognition of happy expressions may be part of the clinical picture of apathy in HD. While shared reliance on frontostriatal pathways may broadly explain associations between emotion recognition and apathy found across several patient groups, further work is needed to determine what relationships exist between recognition of specific emotions, distinct subtypes of apathy and underlying neuropathology. (JINS, 2019, 25, 453-461). Copyright and
KW - Apathy
KW - Cognition
KW - Cognition disorders
KW - Emotion
KW - Huntington's disease
KW - Social behavior
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066048087&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1355617718001224
DO - 10.1017/S1355617718001224
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85066048087
SN - 1355-6177
VL - 25
SP - 453
EP - 461
JO - Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
JF - Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society
IS - 5
ER -