Category: Parkinson's Disease: Cognitive functions
Objective: To prospectively assess social cognition (SC) in newly diagnosed, cognitively normal Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and its relationship with striatal dopaminergic innervation.
Background: SC is scarcely studied in PD. This includes Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to understand other people’s intentions (cognitive ToM) and emotions (affective ToM), and the capacity to identify social and emotional signs such as facial emotion recognition (FER). ToM and FER findings in early PD are controversial. A relationship between dopaminergic deficit and SC has been suggested although insufficiently ascertained.
Method: Newly diagnosed (mean 4 months), drug-naïve, non-depressed and cognitively normal PD patients and healthy controls (HC) were included in the study. Patients were reassessed after 2 years in the off medication state. Motor state was evaluated with MDS-UPDRS-III and SC aspects included KDEF (FER), RMET (affective ToM), The Theory of Mind Picture Stories Task (cognitive ToM) and with MIRI and RSMS questionnaires. Cognitive impairment was ruled out. A subgroup of patients and HC underwent a 18Fluorodopa PET at baseline.
Results: Twenty-five patients and twenty HC were evaluated. We found no significant differences in SC between PD patients and HC subjects at baseline. The SC assessment showed no significant changes, after two years of reassessment of 15 patients. A significant positive correlation between RMET and F-Dopa uptake was found in the left putamen (ρ = 0.495; p =0.023) and between RSMS and F-Dopa uptake in left pallidum (ρ = 0.509; p =0.026) in PD patients (n=21). In HC subjects (n=13), a significant positive correlation was found between ToM total score and F-dopa uptake in the right amygdala (ρ = 0.61; p =0.016), right hippocampus (ρ = 0.653; p =0.008) right (ρ = 0.584; p =0.022) and left pallidum (ρ = 0.642; p =0.01).
Conclusion: SC is normal in de novo PD. A link between SC and striatal dopaminergic innervation is suggested.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
C. Trompeta, C. Gasca-Salas, JA. Pineda Pardo, P. Guida, D. Mata-Marín, M. Hg Monje, A. Sánchez-Ferro, I. Obeso, JA. Obeso. Longitudinal Assessessment of Social Cognition in de novo PD patients and its Relationship with Striatal Dopaminergic Innervation [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2022; 37 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/longitudinal-assessessment-of-social-cognition-in-de-novo-pd-patients-and-its-relationship-with-striatal-dopaminergic-innervation/. Accessed June 15, 2025.« Back to 2022 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/longitudinal-assessessment-of-social-cognition-in-de-novo-pd-patients-and-its-relationship-with-striatal-dopaminergic-innervation/