Longitudinal assessment of social cognition in de novo Parkinson's disease patients and its relationship with dopaminergic innervation.

Clara Trompeta, Carmen Gasca-Salas, José A Pineda-Pardo, Pasqualina Guida, Melanie Cohn, David Mata-Marín, Mariana Hg Monje, Miguel López-Aguirre, Ignacio Obeso, Álvaro Sánchez Ferro

Behavioural brain research 2023 Oct 02

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Social Cognition (SC) has been scarcely studied in Parkinson's disease (PD), and findings in early disease are controversial. SC encompasses different capacities such as facial emotion recognition (FER); Theory of Mind (ToM), the ability to understand other people's intentions (cognitive-ToM) and emotions (affective-ToM); and self-monitoring, the ability to regulate one's own behavior in social contexts. A relationship between dopaminergic deficit and SC in PD has been suggested. To prospectively assess, over a two-year period, SC in newly diagnosed drug-naïve, cognitively normal and non-depressed PD patients. Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between SC and Fluorodopa (Positron Emission Tomography) Ki uptake, which is a marker of dopaminergic depletion. We compared SC performance between 25 de novo PD patients and 20 healthy controls (HC), and within-patients at baseline and two-year follow-up. The SC assessment included FER, ToM, as well as self-monitoring measures. The relationship between SC and dopaminergic innervation was also assessed in patients. SC scores did not differ between PD and HC groups at baseline, nor between baseline and follow-up evaluation in PD. A significant positive correlation between self-monitoring and Fluorodopa Ki uptake in the left pallidum in PD patients was found at baseline. At follow-up, ToM (stories) positively correlated with Fluorodopa Ki uptake in the right thalamus and the left putamen. SC appears to be preserved in de novo PD and remains stable in the short-term. Although more evidence is needed, our results support a relationship between dopamine innervation in subcortical regions and SC. Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Clara Trompeta, Carmen Gasca-Salas, José A Pineda-Pardo, Pasqualina Guida, Melanie Cohn, David Mata-Marín, Mariana Hg Monje, Miguel López-Aguirre, Ignacio Obeso, Álvaro Sánchez Ferro. Longitudinal assessment of social cognition in de novo Parkinson's disease patients and its relationship with dopaminergic innervation. Behavioural brain research. 2023 Oct 02;454:114654