Individuals with different subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a common clinical presentation of frontotemporal dementia characterized by language disturbances, often show overlapping...Show moreIndividuals with different subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA), a common clinical presentation of frontotemporal dementia characterized by language disturbances, often show overlapping clinical symptoms, such that accurate diagnosis can be difficult. Prior studies indicate that social cognitive abilities, in particular emotion recognition, may improve the diagnostic process. Therefore, this study investigated emotion recognition deficits across different emotions and emotional intensities by means of the Emotion Recognition Task (ERT) among patients with a PPA subtype (semantic (svPPA), non-fluent (nfvPPA) or logopenic (lvPPA)), and behavioural frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The ERT is a neuropsychological test consisting of dynamic, naturalistic videos of the six basic facial emotional expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise) across different intensity levels (40, 60, 80 and 100%). In total, emotion recognition abilities were assessed in 152 participants (10 svPPA, 20 nfvPPA, 6 lvPPA, 63 bvFTD, 53 controls). Results of an ANCOVA controlling for age, sex, and education level showed emotion recognition deficits in patients with a PPA subtype and bvFTD compared to controls. Among the patient groups, patients with bvFTD were poorer in overall emotion recognition than patients with nfvPPA. Among the PPA subtypes emotion recognition did not differ. Patients with svPPA were worse in recognizing anger than patients with bvFTD, nfvPPA and lvPPA. In addition, patients with svPPA and bvFTD were worse in recognizing disgust than patients with nfvPPA. Besides, patients with svPPA and controls were better in recognizing happiness, than patients with bvFTD, nfvPPA and lvPPA. Results of a three-way mixed ANOVA showed that emotion recognition abilities improved with higher emotional intensity and group differences were not the largest at the lowest intensity. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate emotion recognition deficits in PPA and bvFTD, and hint towards specific impairments for recognizing anger and disgust in patients with svPPA. These insights can help to improve clinical distinction among the PPA subtypes and bvFTD, which could ultimately lead to better differential diagnosis.Show less
While a general emotion recognition impairment in autistic individuals has been suggested in the past, more recent findings propose that alexithymia plays a major role in this relationship....Show moreWhile a general emotion recognition impairment in autistic individuals has been suggested in the past, more recent findings propose that alexithymia plays a major role in this relationship. Interoception has been theorized to be a factor explaining interindividual differences in emotion recognition and possibly mediating the relationship between alexithymia and emotion recognition. Both alexithymia and autism, have been found to be negatively related to measures of interoception. Therefore, we investigated whether alexithymia, not autism, would be a significant predictor of emotion recognition performance and hypothesized that trait levels of autism and alexithymia would be negatively related to measures of interoception. Additionally, we explored whether interoception mediates the expected negative relationship between trait levels and emotion recognition. A total of 100 participants completed a naturalistic emotion recognition task, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Cambridge Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS), and the Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ) in an online environment. Our hypotheses regarding the relationship between trait levels and emotion recognition, as well as interoception as a mediator, were not supported. However, in line with our expectations, we did observe a marginally significant effect indicating a negative relationship between interoception and alexithymia. Overall, our findings endorse research that links interoception with alexithymia and hence, provide an indication of why alexithymia, not autism, could be a mechanism in emotion recognition impairments. However, to understand the interplay between all factors more thoroughly, further research is necessary. We discuss how an improved understanding could have important implications for the conceptualization of autism.Show less
While a general emotion recognition impairment in autistic individuals has been suggested in the past, more recent findings propose that alexithymia plays a major role in this relationship....Show moreWhile a general emotion recognition impairment in autistic individuals has been suggested in the past, more recent findings propose that alexithymia plays a major role in this relationship. Interoception has been theorized to be a factor explaining interindividual differences in emotion recognition and possibly mediating the relationship between alexithymia and emotion recognition. Both alexithymia and autism, have been found to be negatively related to measures of interoception. Therefore, we investigated whether alexithymia, not autism, would be a significant predictor of emotion recognition performance and hypothesized that trait levels of autism and alexithymia would be negatively related to measures of interoception. Additionally, we explored whether interoception mediates the expected negative relationship between trait levels and emotion recognition. A total of 100 participants completed a naturalistic emotion recognition task, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Cambridge Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale (IAS), and the Body Perception Questionnaire (BPQ) in an online environment. Our hypotheses regarding the relationship between trait levels and emotion recognition, as well as interoception as a mediator, were not supported. However, in line with our expectations, we did observe a marginally significant effect indicating a negative relationship between interoception and alexithymia. Overall, our findings endorse research that links interoception with alexithymia and hence, provide an indication of why alexithymia, not autism, could be a mechanism in emotion recognition impairments. However, to understand the interplay between all factors more thoroughly, further research is necessary. We discuss how an improved understanding could have important implications for the conceptualization of autism.Show less
Present studies fail to supply unambiguous prove for a relationship between the quality of Theory of Mind and the quality of social skills. Also, the relationship between the quality of emotion...Show morePresent studies fail to supply unambiguous prove for a relationship between the quality of Theory of Mind and the quality of social skills. Also, the relationship between the quality of emotion recognition and social skills is not clear. Studies about the Theory of Mind and emotion recognition almost never include children. Because of the relevance of developing adequate social skills, it is of great importance to investigate children who are vulnerable for experiencing difficulties with social skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the Theory of Mind, emotion recognition and social skills in a group of eight till eighteen years olds (M = 11.7, SD = 2.1). Sixty-one children with an ASD performed the Sociaal Cognitieve Vaardigheden Test (SCVT) and an emotion recognition task. Their parents/caregivers completed the Social Skills Rating System. The findings of this study do not suggest a significant relationship between the quality of the Theory of Mind and social skills. The findings also do not provide prove for a significant relationship between the quality of facial emotion recognition and social skills in children with an ASD. Consequently, the quality of social skills can not be predicted by the quality of one of these skills. However, the reaction time of recognizing the emotion surprise seems to predict the quality of the social skills and in particular the quality of self control.Show less
