Dynamic emotion processing in Parkinson's disease as a function of channel availability

J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2010 Oct;32(8):822-35. doi: 10.1080/13803391003596371. Epub 2010 Mar 24.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is linked to impairments for recognizing emotional expressions, although the extent and nature of these communication deficits are uncertain. Here, we compared how adults with and without PD recognize dynamic expressions of emotion in three channels, involving lexical-semantic, prosody, and/or facial cues (each channel was investigated individually and in combination). Results indicated that while emotion recognition increased with channel availability in the PD group, patients performed significantly worse than healthy participants in all conditions. Difficulties processing dynamic emotional stimuli in PD could be linked to striatal dysfunction, which reduces efficient binding of sequential information in the disease.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Models, Psychological
  • Mood Disorders / etiology*
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Nonlinear Dynamics*
  • Parkinson Disease / complications*
  • Photic Stimulation / methods
  • Recognition, Psychology / physiology*
  • Semantics
  • Statistics as Topic
  • Verbal Behavior / physiology