Abstract
Aims. Impairments in social cognition (SC) are increasingly recognized as serious consequences of brain disorders, having a negative impact on everyday life functioning, social relationships and wellbeing of patients. A crucial element of SC is the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotions. We investigated impairments and differences in profiles of emotion recognition in six neurological patient groups: 1. Moderate-severe TBI 2. Moderate-severe stroke 3. Aneurysmal SAH 4. Frontal LGG 5. Advanced Parkinson’s disease 6. bvFTD.
Method. The Ekman Faces Tests of the Facial Expressions-Emotions and Test Stimuli (FEEST; Voncken, 2016) was administered, yielding a total score and 6 separate emotion scores (Anger, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, Disgust and Happiness). All scores were transformed into standard normscores correcting for age, sex and educational level.
Results. 710 patients with neurological disorders were included in four Dutch (Academic) Medical Centers (TBI n=118, Stroke n=93, SAH n=121, LGG n=100, PD=147, bvFTD=131). For each patient group, mean FEEST total scores were significantly lower than normative groups. In addition, patient groups differed significantly from each other: bvFTD patients scored lower than all other groups, TBI patients scored lower than PD and SAH, and stroke patients scored lower than PD patients. Also, significant differences were found between groups regarding recognition of individual emotions, with bvFTD patients scoring lower on all separate emotions than all other groups, TBI patients scoring significantly lower on anger and fear than PD patients and on sadness than SAH patients.
Discussion and conclusions. These findings show that emotion recognition is impaired in different neurological patient groups, with patients with bvFTD performing poorer than the other groups, but also differences across groups regarding impairments of separate emotions. For clinical practice, this warrants the importance of measuring emotion recognition in standard neuropsychological assessment, and to take patient’s specific profiles into account for tailored advice.
Method. The Ekman Faces Tests of the Facial Expressions-Emotions and Test Stimuli (FEEST; Voncken, 2016) was administered, yielding a total score and 6 separate emotion scores (Anger, Sadness, Surprise, Fear, Disgust and Happiness). All scores were transformed into standard normscores correcting for age, sex and educational level.
Results. 710 patients with neurological disorders were included in four Dutch (Academic) Medical Centers (TBI n=118, Stroke n=93, SAH n=121, LGG n=100, PD=147, bvFTD=131). For each patient group, mean FEEST total scores were significantly lower than normative groups. In addition, patient groups differed significantly from each other: bvFTD patients scored lower than all other groups, TBI patients scored lower than PD and SAH, and stroke patients scored lower than PD patients. Also, significant differences were found between groups regarding recognition of individual emotions, with bvFTD patients scoring lower on all separate emotions than all other groups, TBI patients scoring significantly lower on anger and fear than PD patients and on sadness than SAH patients.
Discussion and conclusions. These findings show that emotion recognition is impaired in different neurological patient groups, with patients with bvFTD performing poorer than the other groups, but also differences across groups regarding impairments of separate emotions. For clinical practice, this warrants the importance of measuring emotion recognition in standard neuropsychological assessment, and to take patient’s specific profiles into account for tailored advice.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 2023 |