Relapsing-Remitting and Secondary-Progressive MS-patients differ in decoding others emotions by their eyes.

Abstract

BACKGROUND\nDifficulties in emotion processing and social cognition identified in MS patients have a potential impact on their adaptation to the social environment.\n\n\nOBJECTIVE\nWe aimed to explore the neural correlates of emotion recognition in MS and possible differences between Relapsing-Remitting (RRMS) and Secondary-Progressive (SPMS) patients by the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMEt).\n\n\nMETHOD\nA total of 43 MS patients (27 RRMS; 16 SPMS) and 25 matched healthy controls (HC) underwent clinical assessments, RMEt and a high-resolution T1-weighted MRI scan 3T. The number of correct answers at RMEt was compared between groups. T1-weighted volumes were processed according to an optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM) protocol to obtain grey matter (GM) maps. Voxel-wise analyses were run to assess potential associations between RMEt performance and regional GM volumes.\n\n\nRESULTS\nTaken altogether MS patients reported a significantly lower performance on RMEt compared to HC. When dividing the patients in those with RRMS and those with SPMS the latter group only was found to perform significantly worse than HC on RMEt. VBM analysis revealed significant association between RMEt scores and GM volumes in several cortical (temporo-parieto-occipital cortex) and subcortical (hippocampus, parahippocampus and basal ganglia) brain regions, and in the cerebellum in SPMS patients only.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nResults suggest that, in addition to other clinical differences between RRMS and SPMS, the ability to recognize others emotional states may interest SPMS more significantly than RRMS patients. This is supported by both behavioral and MRI data.