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Prefrontal function associated with impaired emotion recognition in patients with multiple sclerosis
Matthias Krause1, Julia Wendt, Alexander Dressel
1Department of Neurology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Behavioural Brain Research
|August 19, 2009
Summary
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with impaired emotion recognition show reduced brain activation in key emotional processing areas. Lesions in specific white matter tracts correlate with these deficits, impacting facial expression understanding.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neurology
Background:
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by white matter lesions in the central nervous system, often affecting emotion processing pathways.
- Previous studies suggest social and affective disturbances in MS patients, but specific functional deficits in emotional recognition remain under-investigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural correlates of emotional facial recognition deficits in multiple sclerosis using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and lesion mapping.
- To compare emotional recognition abilities and brain activation patterns between MS patients with and without affective impairment, and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and lesion mapping were employed in 11 MS patients with impaired affective ability, 11 unimpaired MS patients, and 11 healthy controls.
- Participants completed a facial expression matching task focusing on recognizing unpleasant emotions (sadness, fear, anger).
Main Results:
- MS patients with impaired affective ability showed decreased recognition performance specifically for unpleasant facial expressions.
- Reduced activation in the insula and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC) was observed in the impaired MS group compared to unimpaired groups.
- Deficits correlated with decreased activation in the left VLPFC and left anterior insula, and with lesions in the left temporal white matter.
Conclusions:
- Emotion recognition deficits in MS may stem from interrupted processing of emotionally relevant information.
- Reduced activation in the VLPFC and insula, linked to white matter lesions, underlies these deficits in MS patients.
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