Emotional impairment in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) may show emotional impairment in the early stages of the disease. PD patients show disadvantageous decision-making, which is related to decreased emotional responses, as measured by skin conductance responses (SCRs). This pattern of decreasing SCRs is similar to that observed in amygdala-damaged patients. In facial expression recognition, PD patients did not show amygdala activation. In another study, PD patients did not show amygdala activations to unpleasant olfactory stimuli, which were observed in normal controls. Emotional impairment in PD patients may reflect amygdala dysfunction in early PD.