INS NYC 2024 Program

Poster	Poster Session 09 Program Schedule 02/16/2024 03:30 pm - 04:45 pm Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120) Poster Session 09: Epilepsy \| Oncology \| MS \| Infectious Disease Final Abstract #99 Assessing Emotion Recognition Among People with Multiple Sclerosis Using a Multi-Dimensional Task Jordan Pumphrey, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada Tamanna Islam, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Sanghamithra Ramani, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada Jason Berard, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada Matthew Seegobin, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada Mai Buckle, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Jing Wang, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada Jennifer Lymer, The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Mark Freedman, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada Lisa Walker, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada Category: Multiple Sclerosis/ALS/Demyelinating Disorders Keyword 1: social cognition Keyword 2: demyelinating disorders Keyword 3: facial affect Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) negatively impacts cognition. In recent years, interest in social cognition in MS has increased, including explorations of emotion recognition. While the literature increasingly supports facial emotion recognition deficits in MS, less is known about the impact of MS on vocal or bodily emotion recognition. The current objective was to assess emotion recognition abilities of individuals with MS compared to healthy controls using a multi-dimensional emotional recognition task available in clinical practice but not yet validated in MS. Participants and Methods: We administered a neuropsychological battery to 31 individuals with MS and 21 healthy controls that included the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS, the Advanced Clinical Solutions Social Perception Subtest (ACS-SP), and self-report measures of fatigue, empathy, depression, and anxiety. The ACS-SP requires participants to match pictures of faces to emotion words (facial emotion recognition), match the emotion in voice clips to pictures of faces (vocal and facial emotion recognition), and match the emotion in voice clips to pictures of two individuals interacting (vocal and bodily emotion recognition). Results: The groups did not differ in age or sex, but did differ in education, t(50) = -2.03, p = .048, so this was controlled for in all analyses. The MS group scored significantly lower than controls on measures of information processing speed, visual learning and memory, and verbal learning and memory. The MS group’s overall performance on the ACS-SP was significantly worse than control performance, F(1, 49) = 5.32, p = .025. In particular, the MS group scored significantly lower on the task of combined vocal and facial emotion recognition, F(1, 49) = 6.48, p = .014. Although the MS group’s mean score was lower than that of the controls for the facial emotion recognition task and the combined vocal and bodily emotion recognition task, these differences were not significant. Finally, within the MS group, emotion recognition ability was positively correlated with information processing speed, visual learning and memory, and verbal learning and memory. In contrast, significant correlations between emotion recognition and other cognitive outcomes were not detected in controls. Neither group displayed significant correlations between emotion recognition and mood or fatigue, but controls exhibited a significant correlation between emotion recognition and self-reported affective empathy. Conclusions: This project brings a new perspective to the literature on social cognition in MS, presenting insights on multi-dimensional emotion recognition. While results support the current evidence that individuals with MS may experience emotion recognition difficulties, they further suggest that matching emotions expressed by tone of voice and facial expressions may be a particular area of difficulty. Results also suggest that emotion recognition ability may be related to other cognitive domains in those with MS, and thus findings may suggest that declines in social cognition may not be independent of more global cognitive decline. Future studies should continue to explore multi-dimensional emotion recognition in MS and its relationship to other aspects of cognition and aim to validate measures of social cognition that are accessible in clinical practice.

Poster

02/16/2024
03:30 pm - 04:45 pm
Room: Majestic Complex (Posters 61-120)

Poster Session 09: Epilepsy | Oncology | MS | Infectious Disease

Final Abstract #99

Assessing Emotion Recognition Among People with Multiple Sclerosis Using a Multi-Dimensional Task

Jordan Pumphrey, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Tamanna Islam, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Sanghamithra Ramani, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
Jason Berard, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Matthew Seegobin, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Mai Buckle, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Jing Wang, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Jennifer Lymer, The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Mark Freedman, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada
Lisa Walker, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada

Category: Multiple Sclerosis/ALS/Demyelinating Disorders

Keyword 1: social cognition
Keyword 2: demyelinating disorders
Keyword 3: facial affect

Objective:

Multiple sclerosis (MS) negatively impacts cognition. In recent years, interest in social cognition in MS has increased, including explorations of emotion recognition. While the literature increasingly supports facial emotion recognition deficits in MS, less is known about the impact of MS on vocal or bodily emotion recognition. The current objective was to assess emotion recognition abilities of individuals with MS compared to healthy controls using a multi-dimensional emotional recognition task available in clinical practice but not yet validated in MS.

Participants and Methods:

We administered a neuropsychological battery to 31 individuals with MS and 21 healthy controls that included the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS, the Advanced Clinical Solutions Social Perception Subtest (ACS-SP), and self-report measures of fatigue, empathy, depression, and anxiety. The ACS-SP requires participants to match pictures of faces to emotion words (facial emotion recognition), match the emotion in voice clips to pictures of faces (vocal and facial emotion recognition), and match the emotion in voice clips to pictures of two individuals interacting (vocal and bodily emotion recognition).

Results:

The groups did not differ in age or sex, but did differ in education, t(50) = -2.03, p = .048, so this was controlled for in all analyses. The MS group scored significantly lower than controls on measures of information processing speed, visual learning and memory, and verbal learning and memory. The MS group’s overall performance on the ACS-SP was significantly worse than control performance, F(1, 49) = 5.32, p = .025. In particular, the MS group scored significantly lower on the task of combined vocal and facial emotion recognition, F(1, 49) = 6.48, p = .014. Although the MS group’s mean score was lower than that of the controls for the facial emotion recognition task and the combined vocal and bodily emotion recognition task, these differences were not significant. Finally, within the MS group, emotion recognition ability was positively correlated with information processing speed, visual learning and memory, and verbal learning and memory. In contrast, significant correlations between emotion recognition and other cognitive outcomes were not detected in controls. Neither group displayed significant correlations between emotion recognition and mood or fatigue, but controls exhibited a significant correlation between emotion recognition and self-reported affective empathy.

Conclusions:

This project brings a new perspective to the literature on social cognition in MS, presenting insights on multi-dimensional emotion recognition. While results support the current evidence that individuals with MS may experience emotion recognition difficulties, they further suggest that matching emotions expressed by tone of voice and facial expressions may be a particular area of difficulty. Results also suggest that emotion recognition ability may be related to other cognitive domains in those with MS, and thus findings may suggest that declines in social cognition may not be independent of more global cognitive decline. Future studies should continue to explore multi-dimensional emotion recognition in MS and its relationship to other aspects of cognition and aim to validate measures of social cognition that are accessible in clinical practice.