[en] Huntington's disease (HD) is centrally characterized by motor, neurocognitive and psychiatric symptoms, but impaired emotional decoding abilities have also been reported. However, more complex affective abilities are still to be explored, and particularly empathy, which is essential for social relations and is impaired in various psychiatric conditions. This study evaluates empathic abilities and social skills in pre-clinical and clinical HD, and explores the distinction between two empathy sub-components (emotional-cognitive). Thirty-six HD patients (17 pre-clinical) and 36 matched controls filled in the Empathy Quotient Scale, while controlling for psychopathological comorbidities. At the clinical stage of HD, no global empathy impairment was observed but rather a specific deficit for the cognitive sub-component, while emotional empathy was preserved. A deficit was also observed for social skills. Pre-clinical HD was not associated with any empathy deficit. Emotional deficits in clinical HD are thus not limited to basic emotion decoding but extend towards complex interpersonal abilities. The dissociation between impaired cognitive and preserved emotional empathy in clinical HD reinforces the proposal that empathy subtypes are sustained by distinct processes. Finally, these results underline the extent of distinct affective and social impairments in HD and the need to grasp them in clinical contexts.
Disciplines :
Psychiatry
Author, co-author :
Maurage, Pierre; Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place C. Mercier, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Electronic address: Pierre.maurage@uclouvain.be
Lahaye, Magali; Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place C. Mercier, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Grynberg, Delphine; Université de Lille, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, F-59000 Lille, France
Jeanjean, Anne; Department of Neurology, Saint-Luc University Hospital, 10 Avenue Hippocrate, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
Guettat, Lamia; Department of Neuropsychiatry, Beauvallon Psychiatric Hospital, 205 Rue de Bricgniot, B-5002 Saint-Servais, Belgium
Verellen-Dumoulin, Christine; Institute of Pathology and Genetics, 25 Avenue George Lemaître, B-6041 Gosselies, Belgium
HALKIN, Stéphane ; Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège - CHU > > Service de psychiatrie
Heeren, Alexandre; Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place C. Mercier, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Billieux, Joël; Laboratory for Experimental Psychopathology, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, 10 Place C. Mercier, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Constant, Eric; Department of Adult Psychiatry, Saint-Luc University Hospital, 10 Avenue Hippocrate, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
Language :
English
Title :
Dissociating emotional and cognitive empathy in pre-clinical and clinical Huntington's disease.
Belgian Fund for Scientific Research European Huntington’s Disease Network
Funding text :
All authors report no competing financial interests or potential conflicts of interest (related or non-related to the research covered in this paper) and no connection with pharmaceutical industries. PM and AH are funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS, Belgium), DG is funded by a FRESH Grant (Belgium) and ML is funded by a Seed Fund from the European Huntington’s Disease Network, but these funds did not exert any editorial direction or censorship on any part of this article.Pierre Maurage (Research Associate) and Alexandre Heeren (Senior Research Fellow) are funded by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS, Belgium). Dr. Alexandre Heeren is also funded by the Belgian Foundation for Vocation (scientific vocation) and the « WBI World Excellence Grant in life sciences » from the « Pôle de Compétitivité du Plan Marshall 2.Vert en sciences du vivant - BIOWIN ». This research has been supported by a Seed Fund Grant from the European Huntington’s Disease Network (Project 332 ) awarded to Prs. Constant and Maurage.
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