New Perspectives on Emotional Processing in People with Symptomatic Huntington’s Disease: Impaired Emotion Regulation and Recognition of Emotional Body Language†

Abstract

Objective Emotion regulation and emotional body language (EBL) recognition represent two fundamental components of emotional processing that have recently seen a considerable surge in research interest, in part due to the role they play in optimizing mental health. This appears to be particularly true for clinical conditions that can profoundly affect emotional functioning. Among these is Huntington’s disease (HD), a neurodegenerative disorder that is associated with several psychological difficulties and cognitive impairments, including well-established deficits in facial emotion recognition. However, although the theoretical case for impairments is strong, the current evidence in HD on other components such as emotion regulation and EBL recognition is sparse. Method In this study, it was hypothesized that emotion regulation and recognition of EBL are impaired in people with symptomatic HD, and that these impairments significantly and positively correlate with each other. A between-subjects design was adopted to compare 13 people with symptomatic HD with 12 non-affected controls matched for age and education. Results The results showed that emotion regulation and EBL recognition were significantly impaired in individuals with HD. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was observed between facial and EBL recognition impairments, whereas EBL performance was negatively related to the disease stage. However, emotion regulation and recognition performances were not significantly correlated. Conclusions This investigation represents the first evidence of a deficit of emotion regulation and EBL recognition in individuals with HD. The clinical implications of these findings are explored, and indications for future research are proposed.

More than Just a Brain Disorder: A Five-Point Manifesto for Psychological Care for People with Huntington’s Disease

“…In his seminal 1872 article On Chorea, George Huntington explained that "as the disease progresses, the mind becomes more or less impaired, in many amounting to insanity, while in others mind and body gradually fail until death relieves them of their sufferings" [1] (p. 320). Today, we know that what Dr Huntington called "insanity" translates into a number of significant psychological difficulties experienced by people with HD (pwHD), which most frequently include low mood and mood extremes, irritability and aggressiveness, anxiety, agitation, perseveration, compulsions, apathy, avoidance, emotion dysregulation, and increased risk of suicide [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. More rarely, pwHD may also experience obsessive-compulsive behaviours, delusions, and hallucinations [4][5][6].…”

Experiences of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Premanifest Huntington’s Disease

“…However, the current literature around emotion regulation in the HD population is very limited [61]. In particular, the only two studies focusing on symptomatic individuals showed contrasting results [62,63], while the only study to date involving premanifest individuals reported no generalised difficulties of emotion regulation, but a potential predictive role of subclinical depressive symptoms over deficits of specific emotion regulation components [64]. Nonetheless, considering a potential early onset of the wellestablished emotion recognition deficits found in HD's symptomatic stage [65], as well the reports from families of premanifest individuals suggesting problems congruent with emotional regulation difficulties [4], it is encouraging that mindfulness could be beneficial in this regard.…”

Health care professionals’ views on psychological factors affecting nutritional behaviour in people with motor neuron disease: A thematic analysis

“…This may be implemented by way of interventions focused on the development of emotion regulation strategies, and especially cognitive reappraisal (Buhle et al ., ; Gross, ). Indeed, reports from previous quantitative and qualitative investigations suggest that individuals living with long‐term neurological conditions including MND can benefit greatly from successful emotion regulation (Williams, Howlett, Levita, & Reuber, ; Williams, Levita, & Reuber, ; Zarotti, Fletcher, & Simpson, ; Zarotti, Simpson, Fletcher, Squitieri, & Migliore, ; Zarotti et al ., ). In addition, HCPs may be able to provide practical suggestions to mitigate the impact on MND on the mealtime experience, such as the use of adapted cutlery and providing advice on tailoring portions around specific mealtime needs (e.g., need for greater time).…”