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Cognitive and Affective Empathy in Huntington's Disease
Arnau Puig-Davi1,2,3,4, Saul Martinez-Horta1,2,5,3,4, Frederic Sampedro1,2,5,3
1Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain.
Journal of Huntington'S Disease
|September 6, 2021
Summary
Huntington
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Social Cognition
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Empathy is crucial for social cognition but poorly understood in Huntington's disease (HD).
- Little is known about the neural basis and behavioral impact of empathy deficits in HD.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate cognitive and affective empathy disturbances in HD.
- To identify neural correlates and behavioral associations of these empathy deficits.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated 54 HD gene-mutation carriers (premanifest and early-manifest) and 36 healthy controls.
- Utilized the Test of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (TECA) and neuroimaging (GMV, Cth).
Main Results:
- Early empathy deficits (cognitive and affective) observed in premanifest HD.
- Symptomatic HD patients showed more severe and widespread empathy impairments.
- Empathy deficits correlated with apathy, irritability, cognitive decline, and specific brain region alterations (thalamus, basal ganglia, limbic system, etc.).
Conclusions:
- Cognitive and affective empathy deficits are early and progressive in HD.
- These deficits involve widespread brain network disruption and contribute to behavioral symptoms and social interaction difficulties.
Keywords:
Huntington’s diseaseempathymagnetic resonance imagingsocial cognitionvoxel-based morphometryMore Related Videos
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