Henry Julie D, Phillips Louise H, Beatty William W, McDonald Skye, Longley Wendy A, Joscelyne Amy, Rendell Peter G
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2009 Mar;15(2):277-85. doi: 10.1017/S1355617709090195. Epub 2009 Feb 10.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a white matter disease associated with neurocognitive difficulties. More recently the potential for white matter pathology to also disrupt important aspects of emotion understanding has been recognized. However, no study to date has assessed whether capacity for facial affect recognition and theory of mind (ToM) is disrupted in MS, or whether any observed deficits are related to more general cognitive impairment. In the present study MS participants (n = 27) and nonclinical controls (n = 30) were administered measures of facial affect recognition, ToM, and cognitive functioning. MS participants were significantly impaired on the ToM task, and also presented with specific deficits decoding facial emotions of anger and fear. Performance on the measures of facial affect recognition and ToM were related to general cognitive functioning, and in particular, measures sensitive to executive dysfunction and information processing speed. These data highlight the need for future research to more fully delineate the extent and implications of emotion understanding difficulties in this population.
多发性硬化症（MS）是一种与神经认知困难相关的白质疾病。最近，白质病理也会扰乱情绪理解的重要方面这一可能性已得到认可。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究评估MS患者对面部表情识别能力和心理理论（ToM）是否受到破坏，或者观察到的任何缺陷是否与更普遍的认知障碍有关。在本研究中，对MS参与者（n = 27）和非临床对照组（n = 30）进行了面部表情识别、ToM和认知功能的测量。MS参与者在ToM任务上明显受损，并且在解码愤怒和恐惧的面部情绪时也表现出特定缺陷。面部表情识别和ToM测量的表现与一般认知功能相关，特别是与对执行功能障碍和信息处理速度敏感的测量相关。这些数据凸显了未来研究更全面地描绘该人群情绪理解困难的程度和影响的必要性。
