Menozzi Elisa, Ballotta Daniela, Cavallieri Francesco, Tocchini Stefania, Contardi Sara, Fioravanti Valentina, Valzania Franco, Nichelli Paolo F, Benuzzi Francesca
Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
Department of Biomedical, Metabolic and Neural Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2025 Feb;252:104686. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2024.104686. Epub 2024 Dec 28.
Affective Theory of Mind (ToM) is the ability to understand other peoples' emotional states and feelings. Several studies showed impaired affective ToM abilities in people with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, most studies tested this ability by using single-stimulus modality tasks (visual cues). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether affective ToM abilities are impaired in PD using multiple stimulus modalities and whether they are related to disease duration and cognitive/emotional abilities. Twenty mid-stage, non-demented people with PD and 20 matched controls were evaluated by means of two tasks requiring subjects to infer others' mental states from the eyes' expression - the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) test, and from the emotional prosody - a modified version of the Reading the Mind in the Voice (RMV) test. In people with PD, cognitive function and emotional processes were assessed through cognitive tasks and batteries of facial and prosodic emotion recognition tests. Compared to controls, the PD group showed significantly impaired performances in both RME and RMV tests (p < 0.0001). Affective ToM abilities in people with PD were not correlated with cognitive function or disease duration. Visual recognition of anger and auditory recognition of fear were positively correlated with RME (p = 0.0028) and RMV (p < 0.0001) test scores, respectively. Cross-modal impairment of affective ToM abilities is a non-motor feature of PD, unrelated to disease stage or cognitive status. A dysfunctional amygdala-centred network might represent the shared bases for impairments in fear and anger recognition and affective ToM abilities in PD.
情感心理理论（ToM）是理解他人情绪状态和感受的能力。多项研究表明帕金森病（PD）患者的情感ToM能力受损。然而，大多数研究通过使用单一刺激模态任务（视觉线索）来测试这种能力。本研究的目的是评估使用多种刺激模态时PD患者的情感ToM能力是否受损，以及它们是否与疾病持续时间和认知/情感能力相关。通过两项要求受试者从眼睛表情推断他人心理状态的任务——“读心术（眼睛）”（RME）测试，以及从情感韵律——“读心术（声音）”（RMV）测试的修改版，对20名中期非痴呆PD患者和20名匹配的对照组进行了评估。对于PD患者，通过认知任务以及面部和韵律情感识别测试组合来评估认知功能和情感过程。与对照组相比，PD组在RME和RMV测试中的表现均显著受损（p < 0.0001）。PD患者的情感ToM能力与认知功能或疾病持续时间无关。对愤怒的视觉识别和对恐惧的听觉识别分别与RME（p = 0.0028）和RMV（p < 0.0001）测试分数呈正相关。情感ToM能力的跨模态损伤是PD的一种非运动特征，与疾病阶段或认知状态无关。以杏仁核为中心的功能失调网络可能是PD患者恐惧和愤怒识别以及情感ToM能力受损的共同基础。
