Emotional processing in RRMS patients: Dissociation between behavioural and neurophysiological response

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neurology

Background:

• Multiple sclerosis (MS) is characterized by diverse symptoms affecting motor, visual, cognitive, and neuropsychiatric functions.
• Previous research suggests MS patients may experience difficulties in emotion recognition, particularly with affective facial expressions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of MS on emotional-behavioral ratings and neurophysiological responses.
• To analyze Event Related Potentials (ERPs) using affective visual stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS).

Main Methods:

• Twenty Relapsing-Remitting MS (RRMS) patients and 20 age-, gender-, and education-matched Healthy Controls (HC) participated.
• Participants underwent neuropsychological assessment and evaluated the arousal and valence of affective visual stimuli.

Main Results:

• RRMS patients exhibited higher P300 amplitudes compared to HC for both pleasant and unpleasant images.
• RRMS patients demonstrated significantly faster Reaction Times (RT) in valence rating than HC.
• No other significant group differences were observed.

Conclusions:

• Early compensatory cerebral mechanisms are evident in RRMS patients during emotional information processing.
• These mechanisms are particularly notable for processing both pleasant and unpleasant stimuli.
• Hypothesized compensatory mechanisms may reduce behavioral differences between RRMS patients and HC.