title: Theory of mind and empathy in preclinical and clinical Huntington's disease.
abstract: We investigated cognitive and affective Theory of Mind (ToM) and empathy in patients with premanifest and manifest Huntington's disease (HD). The relationship between ToM performance and executive skills was also examined. Sixteen preclinical and 23 clinical HD patients, and 39 healthy subjects divided into 2 control groups were given a French adaptation of the Yoni test (Shamay-Tsoory, S.G., Aharon-Peretz, J. (2007). Dissociable prefrontal networks for cognitive and affective theory of mind: a lesion study. Neuropsychologia, 45(3), 3054-67) that examines first- and second-order cognitive and affective ToM processing in separate conditions with a physical control condition. Participants were also given questionnaires of empathy and cognitive tests which mainly assessed executive functions (inhibition and mental flexibility). Clinical HD patients made significantly more errors than their controls in the first- and second-order cognitive and affective ToM conditions of the Yoni task, but exhibited no empathy deficits. However, there was no evidence that ToM impairment was related to cognitive deficits in these patients. Preclinical HD patients were unimpaired in ToM tasks and empathy measures compared with their controls. Our results are consistent with the idea that impaired affective and cognitive mentalizing emerges with the clinical manifestation of HD, but is not necessarily part of the preclinical stage. Furthermore, these impairments appear independent of executive dysfunction and empathy.
authors.affiliation: Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, UMR 9197, Deparment cognition & Behavior, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, F-91405, Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and.
authors.forename: Najia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Adjeroud
authors.affiliation: LUNAM Université, Université d'Angers, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (EA 4638), Angers, France.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Besnard
authors.affiliation: Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, UMR 9197, Deparment cognition & Behavior, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, F-91405.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: El Massioui
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Verny
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and.
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prudean
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and.
authors.forename: Clarisse
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and.
authors.forename: Bénédicte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gohier
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and.
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonneau
authors.affiliation: Centre National de Référence pour les Maladies Neurogénétiques de l'Adulte, Département de Neurologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire d'Angers, Angers France, and LUNAM Université, Université d'Angers, Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (EA 4638), Angers, France phallain@chu-angers.fr.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Allain
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D004645:Empathy; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D056345:Theory of Mind
keywords: Huntington’s disease; empathy; social cognition; theory of mind