Corticostriatal signatures of schadenfreude: evidence from Huntington’s disease

Abstract

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.

Structural neuroimaging differentiates vulnerability from disease manifestation in colombian families with Huntington's disease

“…We attempted to fill this void in the current scientific literature by studying the neuroimaging atrophy markers of HD reported by previous studies in a cohort of HD patients and their first-degree relatives from Magdalena, Colombia. This Colombian region has a high prevalence of the disease, previously reported as the second largest worldwide (Baez et al, 2015(Baez et al, , 2016(Baez et al, , 2018Kargieman et al, 2014). Impairments in negative emotion recognition and empathy for pain (Baez et al, 2015), reduced Schadenfreude (Baez et al, 2016), and motor-language coupling (Kargieman et al, 2014) have been reported to affect HD families in the region.…”

“…Events were presented in pseudo-randomized order. These socio-emotional scores have been previously validated in HD (Baez et al, 2016(Baez et al, , 2018.…”

“…Impairments in negative emotion recognition and empathy for pain (Baez et al, ), reduced Schadenfreude (Baez et al, ), and motor‐language coupling (Kargieman et al, ) have been reported to affect HD families in the region. A study that involved HD patients from this region and age‐matched unrelated controls associated the ventral striatum, precuneus, and superior parietal lobule with Schadenfreude in HD patients (Baez et al, ). The atrophy patterns reported by Baez and colleagues, which involved the basal ganglia and thalamus as well as the frontal and parietal cortex, matched previous reports on HD (Baez et al, ).…”

“…A study that involved HD patients from this region and age‐matched unrelated controls associated the ventral striatum, precuneus, and superior parietal lobule with Schadenfreude in HD patients (Baez et al, ). The atrophy patterns reported by Baez and colleagues, which involved the basal ganglia and thalamus as well as the frontal and parietal cortex, matched previous reports on HD (Baez et al, ).…”

Translating striatal activity from brain slice to whole animal neurophysiology: A guide for neuroscience research integrating diverse levels of analysis

“…The extensions of the DA receptor subtype differential effects support the earlier work and allow for a specific gateway for which positive and negative valence information diverges. Emotional and reward processing is defective in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's and Parkinson's disease (Baez et al, 2018;Enzi et al, 2012;Perry & Kramer, 2015;Swainson et al, 2006) fitting into the scope of recent work by the Levine laboratory focusing on animal models of neurodegenerative disease and revealing specific breakdown in neurochemical interactions (Cepeda, Murphy, Parent, & Levine, 2014;Chen, Wang, Cepeda, & Levine, 2013;Galvan, Andre, Wang, Cepeda, & Levine, 2012; and see related articles in this volume). This more subtle shift might depend upon more subtle processing.…”