Emotion recognition in Huntington's disease: a systematic review
Susie M D Henley1, Marianne J U Novak, Chris Frost
1Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK. Susie.Henley@ucl.ac.uk
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
|June 25, 2011
Summary
Huntington
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Genetics
Background:
- Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder.
- Emotion recognition deficits are a known symptom of HD.
- Previous research shows conflicting results regarding specific emotion recognition impairments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and synthesize existing literature on emotion recognition in Huntington's disease.
- To clarify the nature and extent of emotion recognition deficits in both manifest and premanifest HD.
- To identify patterns and inconsistencies in emotion recognition across different emotions and modalities.
Main Methods:
- A systematic review and narrative synthesis approach was employed.
- Searches were conducted across Embase, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and Pubmed databases (1993-2010).
- Included studies investigating emotion recognition in individuals with HD.
Main Results:
- Manifest HD consistently shows impaired recognition of facial expressions of anger.
- Recognition of all negative emotions (facial and vocal) tends to be impaired in manifest HD.
- Impairments in premanifest HD are inconsistent but observed for facial expressions of negative emotions.
Conclusions:
- Evidence suggests a general impairment in recognizing negative emotions in Huntington's disease, especially facial expressions.
- Inconsistencies in findings may stem from HD's inherent variability or methodological differences between studies.
- Future research should utilize more ecologically valid tests and examine inter-modality differences in emotion recognition.
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