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Emotion recognition in Huntington's disease and frontotemporal dementia
Snowden JS, Austin NA, Sembi S, Thompson JC, Craufurd D, Neary D.. Neuropsychologia, 2008-05-02
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
A well-documented feature of Huntington's disease (HD) is disproportionate impairment in the ability to recognise the emotional expression of disgust. However, this finding has been challenged by studies that report no differential disgust impairment and attribute apparent differences across emotions to task difficulty. The present study sought to shed light on disparities in findings through a comparative study of emotion recognition in HD and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Ten HD, 12 FTD patients and 12 healthy controls were administered 10 tasks assessing facial and vocal recognition of emotions and comprehension of emotion terms. The findings were not consistent with either the 'selective disgust impairment' or 'task difficulty' view. Both HD and FTD groups were impaired compared to controls, deficits in HD being less severe. Impairments in FTD were elicited for all emotions whereas in HD they were demonstrated predominantly for negative emotions of fear, disgust and anger. Consistency in performance, despite varying task demands, excluded an explanation in terms of item difficulty, and was in keeping with the notion of distinct neural substrates for processing of negative emotions. Contrary to the notion of disproportionate disgust impairment, the most severe deficits in HD were elicited for anger, a finding that may have relevance for the poor anger control that is the hallmark of HD. The data raise the possibility that linguistic influences and conceptual complexities of the emotion of disgust may contribute to the variable finding of selective disgust impairment in HD.
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APA 7th
Snowden, J. S., Austin, N. A., Sembi, S., Thompson, J. C., Craufurd, D., & Neary, D. (2008). Emotion recognition in Huntington's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Neuropsychologia. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.018
Vancouver
Snowden JS, Austin NA, Sembi S, Thompson JC, Craufurd D, Neary D. Emotion recognition in Huntington's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Neuropsychologia. 2008. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.018. PMID: 18533200.
BibTeX
@article{snowden2008-18533200,
author = {Snowden, J. S. and Austin, N. A. and Sembi, S. and Thompson, J. C. and Craufurd, D. and Neary, D.},
title = {{Emotion recognition in Huntington's disease and frontotemporal dementia}},
journal = {Neuropsychologia},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.018},
pmid = {18533200},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.04.018}
}
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Key findings
- Both HD and FTD groups were impaired compared to controls, deficits in HD being less severe.
- Impairments in FTD were elicited for all emotions whereas in HD they were demonstrated predominantly for negative emotions of fear, disgust and anger.
Why it matters
In small groups of patients, both Huntington's disease and frontotemporal dementia showed impaired emotion recognition compared with controls, with different patterns across emotions. This is a small comparative study of emotion processing and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 41/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Neuropsychologia) |
| Journal's citation record | 3 / 4 | Neuropsychologia: journal h-index 321 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2008 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 5 / 7 | Cited 151 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 7.5 citations a year over 20 year(s) since 2008 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 4.6× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 1 / 6 | Cited by 2 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 0 / 4 | Cited 2 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 3 / 4 | Last-listed author David Neary: h-index 83 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | University of Manchester: institution h-index 1,304 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 5 institution(s) in 2 countries |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 18533200) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 41 / 100 | — |
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