title: Degraded Impairment of Emotion Recognition in Parkinson's Disease Extends from Negative to Positive Emotions.
abstract: Because of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show impairment in the recognition of negative facial expressions. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether PD patients with more advanced motor problems would show a much greater deficit in recognition of emotional facial expressions than a control group and whether impairment of emotion recognition would extend to positive emotions. Twenty-nine PD patients and 29 age-matched healthy controls were recruited. Participants were asked to discriminate emotions in Experiment  1 and identify gender in Experiment  2. In Experiment  1, PD patients demonstrated a recognition deficit for negative (sadness and anger) and positive faces. Further analysis showed that only PD patients with high motor dysfunction performed poorly in recognition of happy faces. In Experiment  2, PD patients showed an intact ability for gender identification, and the results eliminated possible abilities in the functions measured in Experiment  2 as alternative explanations for the results of Experiment  1. We concluded that patients' ability to recognize emotions deteriorated as the disease progressed. Recognition of negative emotions was impaired first, and then the impairment extended to positive emotions.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chia-Yao
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-4038-1317
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Tien
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jong-Tsun
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan; Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Neurology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chon-Haw
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9589-7679
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Neural and Cognitive Sciences, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan; School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Chuan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0967-4402
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Hsu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012938:Social Perception