Visscher, Madelief (2022) Facial Emotion Recognition and Visual Functioning in the Early Stage of Parkinson's Disease. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Facial emotion recognition (FER) can be impaired in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients and may influence relationships and quality of life. Previous studies however are inconsistent on the presence of FER difficulties in early stage patients. In addition, it has been suggested that lower- and higher-order visual functions could be associated with FER ability. The aim of this study is to create more insight into FER and visual functions in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve PD patients. A group of PD patients (n=152, 72% male) was compared to healthy controls (HC; n=105, 52% male). All participants underwent the same neuropsychological assessment, in which FER was measured by the Ekman 60 faces test of the Facial Expressions of Emotion: Stimuli and Tests (FEEST), and higher-order visual functions were measured by the Judgment of Line Orientation (JOLO) and Test of Everyday Attention (TEA): Map Search. In addition, lower-order visual function of the PD group was measured by the Pelli-Robson chart and indicated poor contrast sensitivity. Analyses show that the PD group scored lower on the FEEST (F = 7.76, p = .006), the JOLO (F = 10.06, p = .002) and the TEA Map Search (F = 27.75, p < .001) than the HC group. Further analyses show significant relationships between the FEEST and the Pelli-Robson chart (rs = .35, p < .001), the FEEST and the JOLO (rs = .21, p = .009), and the FEEST and the TEA Map Search (rs= .42, p < .001). When investigating predictors of the FEEST, age and gender contributed significantly to the regression model (ß = -.339, p < .003 and ß = .172, p = .050, respectively) and the visual functions did not significantly contribute to the model. Therefore, it can be concluded that FER can be impaired in newly diagnosed, treatment-naïve patients. The visual functions and FER were related, but could not explain the variance in the FER task outcomes. Keywords: early stage, Parkinson’s disease, facial emotion recognition, lower-order visual function, higher-order visual function.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Slomp, A.C. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Clinical Neuropsychology (CN) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 26 Aug 2022 07:38 |
| Last Modified: | 26 Aug 2022 07:38 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1334 |
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