Laboratory of Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience (LPEN), Institute of Cognitive and Translational Neuroscience (INCyT), INECO Foundation, Favaloro University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Deparment of Psychology, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2018 Jan;89(1):112-116. doi: 10.1136/jnnp-2017-316055. Epub 2017 Aug 1.
Schadenfreudepleasure at others' misfortunes-is a multidetermined social emotion which involves reward processing, mentalising and perspective-taking abilities. Patients with Huntington's disease (HD) exhibit reductions of this experience, suggesting a role of striatal degeneration in such impairment. However, no study has directly assessed the relationship between regional brain atrophy in HD and reduced schadenfreude. Here, we assessed whether grey matter (GM) atrophy in patients with HD correlates with ratings of schadenfreude. First, we compared the performance of 20 patients with HD and 23 controls on an experimental task designed to trigger schadenfreude and envy (another social emotion acting as a control condition). Second, we compared GM volume between groups. Third, we examined brain regions where atrophy might be associated with specific impairments in the patients. While both groups showed similar ratings of envy, patients with HD reported lower schadenfreude. The latter pattern was related to atrophy in regions of the reward system (ventral striatum) and the mentalising network (precuneus and superior parietal lobule). Our results shed light on the intertwining of reward and socioemotional processes in schadenfreude, while offering novel evidence about their neural correlates.
幸灾乐祸是一种多因素决定的社会情绪，涉及奖励处理、心理化和换位思考能力。亨廷顿病（HD）患者表现出这种体验的减少，表明纹状体退化在这种损伤中起作用。然而，尚无研究直接评估 HD 患者大脑区域萎缩与减少的幸灾乐祸之间的关系。在这里，我们评估了 HD 患者的灰质（GM）萎缩是否与幸灾乐祸的评分相关。首先，我们比较了 20 名 HD 患者和 23 名对照组在设计用于引发幸灾乐祸和嫉妒（另一种作为对照条件的社会情绪）的实验任务中的表现。其次，我们比较了两组之间的 GM 体积。第三，我们检查了与患者特定损伤相关的可能与萎缩相关的脑区。尽管两组的嫉妒评分相似，但 HD 患者的幸灾乐祸评分较低。后一种模式与奖励系统（腹侧纹状体）和心理化网络（楔前叶和顶下小叶）的萎缩有关。我们的结果阐明了幸灾乐祸中奖励和社会情感过程的交织，同时提供了关于其神经相关性的新证据。
