Sensorimotor responses and emotional perception in empathy for pain: An study in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and healthy older adults

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundMotricity has been proposed to shape our perception and the pre‐reflective knowledge of the other as embodied agents. Through our motor system, we have a meaningful pre‐reflective conception of the experience of the other (empathy). We compared the sensorimotor responses and emotional perception in persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and healthy older adults (HOA) while they watched videos of sportswomen/sportsmen suffering physical accidents and videos of a neutral condition.Method86 participants older than 60 years were recruited (AD = 28, PD = 25, HOA = 33). Subjects with AD were diagnosed following NINCDS‐ADRDA criteria and PD with the United Kingdom Parkinson’s Disease Society Brain Bank. The assessment consisted of two parts. Firstly, a neuropsychological battery that included assessment in global cognition (ACE‐III), executive function (IFS, FAS), memory (FCRST), and social cognition (Minisea). Secondly, participants stood up without moving on a force platform while watching videos (60 seconds long and seven scenes each). One video showed sportswomen/sportsmen having physical accidents practicing extreme sports (pain condition), and the other was a neutral condition (home furnishings). At the end of each video, participants rated valence, intensity, and control (1‐9). Each scene was analyzed through six consecutive windows: three seconds before the fall and three after the fall. The six windows of the neutral condition were selected by taking the central temporal part of each scene. Subsequently, and in each window, the AnteroPosterior amplitude of the Center of Pressure (AP‐CoP) was calculated.ResultsParticipants with AD showed significant impairment in practically all cognitive domains, compared to PD and HOA. An Anova (group*condition*temporal windows) revealed a simple effect on group and condition in AP‐CoP displacement. AD and PD showed higher AP‐CoP in both pain and neutral condition than HOA. PD and HOA showed higher AP‐CoP in pain condition than neutral condition, but not AD. In the ANOVA (group*condition), AD rated (p <0.01) higher the emotional valence in the pain condition (5,93±2,72) than PD (3,52±2,2) and HOA (4,06±2,29).ConclusionSensorimotor responses in AD and PD showed enhanced AP‐CoP when compared to HOA. Moreover, AD patients showed a marked impairment in perceiving empathy towards the pain of others.