Session Information
Date: Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Session Title: Parkinson's disease: Cognition
Session Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: Exhibit Hall located in Hall B, Level 2
Objective: To characterise the ability of individuals with Parkinson’s to discriminate the six universal facial expressions.
Background: People with Parkinson’s (PwP) tend to have difficulty expressing and recognising facial expressions. However, there is mixed evidence about precisely which expressions PwP find most difficult. We use a methodological approach that is sufficiently sensitive to measure differences that participants are not aware of and that can be analysed at the level of the individual.
Methods: PwP aged 50 or older took part in an emotion discrimination task while they were on medication, control participants also took part. Stimuli are black and white images of neutral, happy, angry, disgust, fear, sad and surprise facial expressions. A range of intensities of expressions (0-100%) are created by morphing between neutral and expressive images. The neutral image (0%) is presented in one interval and the expressive image (varies 0-100%) in the other. Participants indicate the interval with the greatest expression and images are presented in blocks of expression.
Results: For all PwP and all expressions, performance increases from chance (50%) to 100% correct as intensity of expression increases. Fitted functions describing performance of expressions of happy and disgust are shifted to the left of the others. This suggests that PwP are most sensitive to happy and disgust. Control participants are also most sensitive to happy, and disgust but they are also more sensitive to surprise than PwP. There are differences in the spread of the fitted functions between PwP and controls. PwP tend to have a single cluster of functions describing performance for all expressions. Control participants tend to have two clusters, one describing performance with happy, disgust and surprise and another describing performance with anger, fear and sad.
Conclusions: Sensitivity to expressions of emotion may be an indicator of Parkinson’s disease. Further research is required to identify how this sensitivity may be linked to disease progression.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
J. Wincenciak, D.J. Burn, L.S. Delicato. Sensitivity of people with Parkinson’s to different intensities of emotions (SPiEs) [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2016; 31 (suppl 2). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sensitivity-of-people-with-parkinsons-to-different-intensities-of-emotions-spies/. Accessed June 14, 2025.« Back to 2016 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sensitivity-of-people-with-parkinsons-to-different-intensities-of-emotions-spies/