EEG Correlates of Emotional Experience in Huntington’s Disease

Abstract

Recognizing negative emotions is impaired in Huntington's disease (HD), while the subjective emotional involvement in affective pictures images is not completely known in these patients. We aimed to further evaluate emotional reaction in early HD patients, by means of subjective arousal and valence rating and EEG changes induced by International Affective Pictures (IAPS).We recruited 16 consecutive genetically confirmed HD outpatients, and 16 sex and age matched controls. Eighty-four color slides, 28 pleasant, 28 unpleasant and 28 neutral images, in random presentation, were chosen from the International Affective Picture System. EEG was recorded by 32 scalp electrodes.HD patients judged negative and positive affective images respectively more unpleasant and pleasant than controls. They also exhibited higher arousal for pictures, independently from their affective content. However, in HD patients we observed a reduced positivity in the 400-700 m.sec intervals during unpleasant pictures viewing.Present findings may suggest that emotional impact related to affective images is preserved in HD, but it coexists with impairment of late cortical processing following unpleasant stimuli. Citation: de Tommaso M, Serpino C, Cormio C, Sciruicchio V, Franco G, et al. (2013) 4: 199. doi:10.4172/2157-7412.1000199 Page 2 of 7 Sixteen age and sex matched controls were also selected, on the basis of the exclusion of any neurological, psychiatric and general medical disorders, or CNS acting drugs use (Table 1). Journal of Genetic Syndromes & Gene TherapyEEG Correlates of Emotional Experience in Huntington's Disease. J Genet Syndr Gene Ther Experimental procedureAfter arriving at the laboratory, participants read and signed an informed consent and electrodes were attached. Patients and controls were informed on the characteristics of images and the meaning of valence and arousal rating they should assigned. They were then asked to pay attention to images, which were randomly presented. After the experimental session, participants were asked to rate all test pictures on two separate scales for valence and arousal ranging from 1 (very unpleasant, no arousal) to 9 (very pleasant, very strong arousal). Both rating scales were presented consecutively and simultaneously with the test picture on the monitor. Participants made their ratings by pressing one of the designated keys on the computer keyboard. We did not perform valence and arousal ratings during the EEG, in order to avoid movement artifacts. EEG recordingEEG was obtained by 32 scalp electrodes, by means of Micromed System Plus apparatus (Micromed, Mogliano Veneto, Italy; www. micromed-it.com) according to the international 10/20 system and the x-y-z coordinates provided by the ASA software (ASA version 4.8.1; ANT software Software, Enschede, Netherlands: http://www. ant-neuro.com). The reference electrode was placed on the nose, the ground electrode was in Fpz, and one electrode was placed above the right eyebrow for electrooculogram (EOG) recording. Impedance was ...

Abnormal Visual Scanning of Emotionally Evocative Natural Scenes in Huntington’s Disease

“…The most frequently reported deficit is an impaired ability to identify emotions from pictures of actors posing with emotional facial expressions (e.g., Sprengelmeyer et al, 1996; Johnson et al, 2007; Labuschagne et al, 2013; Bora et al, 2016). Furthermore, many studies have found alterations in the self-reported experience of emotion in response to emotionally evocative stimuli (c.f., Mitchell et al, 2005; Paradiso et al, 2008; Eddy et al, 2011; Ille et al, 2011a; De Tommaso et al, 2013). …”

“…In contrast, when pictures of emotionally evocative scenes were used most studies found exaggerated emotional experiences in HD. Specifically, findings include exaggerated experiences of specific emotions, such as anger, fear, disgust, or happiness (Paradiso et al, 2008; Eddy et al, 2011; Ille et al, 2011a), and exaggerated experiences of arousal or valence (Paradiso et al, 2008; De Tommaso et al, 2013). Findings, however, also include a reduced experience of fear in HD (Eddy et al, 2011), as well as a lack of group differences when rating the experience of several emotions, including, disgust, happiness, or fear (Eddy et al, 2011; Ille et al, 2011b).…”

“…Findings, however, also include a reduced experience of fear in HD (Eddy et al, 2011), as well as a lack of group differences when rating the experience of several emotions, including, disgust, happiness, or fear (Eddy et al, 2011; Ille et al, 2011b). Studies into the neural correlates of processing emotional scenes, using [ 15 O]water positron emission tomography (PET; Paradiso et al, 2008), electroencephalography (EEG; De Tommaso et al, 2013) and voxel-based morphometry (VBM; Ille et al, 2011b) showed associations between self-reported experiences and structural and functional changes in widespread brain regions in HD, including frontal-subcortical emotion processing networks. Overall, although emotional experiences appear to be affected in HD, the ambiguous findings from self-report studies do not allow for clear conclusions about whether experiences are generally diminished or exaggerated, which emotional states are affected, and whether this depends on the type of stimulus.…”