An exploratory study on emotion recognition in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis

Jehna, Margit; Neuper, Christa; Petrovic, Katja; Wallner-Blazek, Mirja; Schmidt, Reinhold; Fuchs, Siegrid; Fazekas, Franz; Enzinger, Christian

doi:10.1016/j.clineuro.2010.03.020

« Previous Next »Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery
Volume 112, Issue 6 , Pages 482-484, July 2010

An exploratory study on emotion recognition in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis

Margit Jehna
- Institute for Psychology, Karl Franzens University Graz, Austria
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
Christa Neuper
- Institute for Psychology, Karl Franzens University Graz, Austria
Katja Petrovic
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
Mirja Wallner-Blazek
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
Reinhold Schmidt
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
Siegrid Fuchs
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
Franz Fazekas
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
Christian Enzinger
- Department of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 22, A-8036 Graz, Austria
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +43 316 385 2981; fax: +43 316 385 6808.

Received 15 June 2009; received in revised form 15 March 2010; accepted 16 March 2010.

Abstract

Objectives

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic multifocal CNS disorder which can affect higher order cognitive processes. Whereas cognitive disturbances in MS are increasingly better characterised, emotional facial expression (EFE) has rarely been tested, despite its importance for adequate social behaviour.

Patients and methods

We tested 20 patients with a clinically isolated syndrome suggestive of MS (CIS) or MS and 23 healthy controls (HC) for the ability to differ between emotional facial stimuli, controlling for the influence of depressive mood (ADS-L). We screened for cognitive dysfunction using The Faces Symbol Test (FST).

Results

The patients demonstrated significant decreased reaction-times regarding emotion recognition tests compared to HC. However, the results also suggested worse cognitive abilities in the patients. Emotional and cognitive test results were correlated.

Conclusion

This exploratory pilot study suggests that emotion recognition deficits might be prevalent in MS. However, future studies will be needed to overcome the limitations of this study.

Keywords: Expressed emotion, Multiple sclerosis, Recognition