title: Emotion recognition and experience in Huntington disease: a voxel-based morphometry study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The neuroanatomic basis of affective processing deficits in Huntington disease is insufficiently understood. We investigated whether Huntington disease-related deficits in emotion recognition and experience are associated with specific changes in grey matter volume.
  
  
  METHODS
  We assessed grey matter volume in symptomatic patients with Huntington disease and healthy controls using voxel-based morphometry, and we correlated regional grey matter volume with participants' affective ratings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We enrolled 18 patients with Huntington disease and 18 healthy controls in our study. Patients with Huntington disease showed normal affective experience but impaired recognition of negative emotions (disgust, anger, sadness). The patients perceived the emotions as less intense and made more classification errors than controls. These deficits were correlated with regional atrophy in emotion-relevant areas (insula, orbitofrontal cortex) and in memory-relevant areas (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study was limited by the small sample size and the resulting modest statistical power relative to the number of tests.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study sheds new light on the importance of a cognitive-affective brain circuit involved in the affect recognition impairment in patients with Huntington disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Rottraut
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ille
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Scharmüller
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Enzinger
authors.forename: Helmuth
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schöggl
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Kapfhammer
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schienle
mesh_terms: D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D036421:Nerve Fibers, Unmyelinated / Q000473:pathology*; D059906:Neuroimaging / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014796:Visual Perception