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Alexithymia and impaired facial affect recognition in multiple sclerosis
D Prochnow1, J Donell, R Schäfer
1Department of Neurology, Medical Faculty, University of Düsseldorf, Moorenstrasse 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany. deniseprochnow82@gmail.com
Multiple sclerosis (MS) patients show significant deficits in recognizing facial emotions, impacting social functioning. MS patients also exhibit higher levels of alexithymia, indicating difficulties with emotional introspection.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Clinical Neurology
Background:
- Emotion processing is crucial for social functioning.
- Facial affect recognition deficits in multiple sclerosis (MS) are understudied.
- Previous research suggests emotion processing impairments in MS, but details are lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate facial affect recognition abilities in MS patients.
- To assess alexithymia levels in MS patients.
- To explore the link between MS and emotion processing deficits.
Main Methods:
- Neuropsychological assessment of emotion processing in 35 MS patients and healthy controls.
- Utilized two facial affect recognition tasks.
- Employed self-report measures for alexithymia.
Main Results:
- MS patients demonstrated impaired recognition of four out of six basic Ekman emotions (excluding happiness and disgust).
- MS patients scored higher on alexithymia compared to controls.
- Deficits were observed in recognizing emotional facial expressions and emotional introspection.
Conclusions:
- MS is associated with significant deficits in facial emotion recognition.
- MS patients experience challenges in emotional introspection, indicated by higher alexithymia.
- These findings highlight the impact of MS on social functioning through impaired emotion processing.
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