Facial Emotion Recognition in Parkinson's Disease: An fMRI Investigation.
BACKGROUND
Findings of behavioral studies on facial emotion recognition in Parkinson's disease (PD) are very heterogeneous. Therefore, the present investigation additionally used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in order to compare brain activation during emotion perception between PD patients and healthy controls.


RESULTS
We included 17 nonmedicated, nondemented PD patients suffering from mild to moderate symptoms and 22 healthy controls. The participants were shown pictures of facial expressions depicting disgust, fear, sadness, and anger and they answered scales for the assessment of affective traits. The patients did not report lowered intensities for the displayed target emotions, and showed a comparable rating accuracy as the control participants. The questionnaire scores did not differ between patients and controls. The fMRI data showed similar activation in both groups except for a generally stronger recruitment of somatosensory regions in the patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Since somatosensory cortices are involved in the simulation of an observed emotion, which constitutes an important mechanism for emotion recognition, future studies should focus on activation changes within this region during the course of disease.
Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, BioTechMedGraz, Graz, Austria.
Albert
A
Wabnegger
Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, BioTechMedGraz, Graz, Austria.
Rottraut
R
Ille
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Petra
P
Schwingenschuh
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Petra
P
Katschnig-Winter
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Mariella
M
Kögl-Wallner
Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Karoline
K
Wenzel
Clinical Psychology, University of Graz, BioTechMedGraz, Graz, Austria.
Anne
A
Schienle
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual