An exploratory study on emotion recognition in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome and multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Objectives Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic multifocal CNS disorder which can affect higher order cognitive processes. Whereas cognitive disturbances in MS are increasingly better characterised, emotional facial expression (EFE) has rarely been tested, despite its importance for adequate social behaviour. Patients and methods We tested 20 patients with a clinically isolated syndrome suggestive of MS (CIS) or MS and 23 healthy controls (HC) for the ability to differ between emotional facial stimuli, controlling for the influence of depressive mood (ADS-L). We screened for cognitive dysfunction using The Faces Symbol Test (FST). Results The patients demonstrated significant decreased reaction-times regarding emotion recognition tests compared to HC. However, the results also suggested worse cognitive abilities in the patients. Emotional and cognitive test results were correlated. Conclusion This exploratory pilot study suggests that emotion recognition deficits might be prevalent in MS. However, future studies will be needed to overcome the limitations of this study.