Emotional Recognition and Its Relation to Cognition, Mood and Fatigue in Relapsing–Remitting and Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

Ornella Argento (), Chiara Piacentini, Michela Bossa and Ugo Nocentini
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Ornella Argento: Behavioral Neuropsychology Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. “Santa Lucia” Foundation, 00179 Rome, Italy
Chiara Piacentini: Behavioral Neuropsychology Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. “Santa Lucia” Foundation, 00179 Rome, Italy
Michela Bossa: Behavioral Neuropsychology Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. “Santa Lucia” Foundation, 00179 Rome, Italy
Ugo Nocentini: Behavioral Neuropsychology Laboratory, I.R.C.C.S. “Santa Lucia” Foundation, 00179 Rome, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 24, 1-11

Abstract: (1) Background: Emotional recognition (ER), the ability to read into others’ minds and recognize others’ emotional states, is important in social environment adaptation. Recently it has been found that ER difficulties affect patients with multiple sclerosis (pMS) and relate to different gray matter atrophy patterns from secondary progressive (SP-pMS) and relapsing–remitting (RR-pMS). The aim of this study was to compare the performances of the two MS phenotypes on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RMEt) and other cognitive, mood and fatigue measures. We also examined associations between performance on the RMEt and cognitive, mood and fatigue variables. (2) Methods: A total of 43 pMS (27RR-pMS/16SP-pMS) underwent a clinical assessment, the RMEt, the cognitive battery, and completed mood and fatigue questionnaires. Both groups’ performances on the RMEt were then correlated with all these measures. (3) Results: the RMEt scores of RR-pMS were significantly correlated with the impairment degree in some cognitive scores. SP-pMS scores correlated mainly with fatigue, anxiety, anger and depression. (4) Conclusions: ER performances relate to cognitive aspects in RR-pMS, whereas mainly to mood outcomes in the SP-pMS group. We can hypothesize that deficits in ER are a further sign of disease progression. Our data support the different roles of cognitive and emotional deficits related to different disease courses and lesional correlates.

Keywords: emotional recognition; social cognition; cognition; mood; fatigue; multiple sclerosis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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