Aristotelidou V, Tsatali M, Overton PG, Vivas AB. Autonomic factors do not underlie the elevated self-disgust levels in Parkinson's disease.
PLoS One 2021;
16:e0256144. [PMID:
34473758 PMCID:
PMC8412376 DOI:
10.1371/journal.pone.0256144]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
INTRODUCTION
Parkinson's disease (PD) is manifested along with non-motor symptoms such as impairments in basic emotion regulation, recognition and expression. Yet, self-conscious emotion (SCEs) such as self-disgust, guilt and shame are under-investigated. Our previous research indicated that Parkinson patients have elevated levels of self-reported and induced self-disgust. However, the cause of that elevation-whether lower level biophysiological factors, or higher level cognitive factors, is unknown.
METHODS
To explore the former, we analysed Skin Conductance Response (SCR, measuring sympathetic activity) amplitude and high frequency Heart Rate Variability (HRV, measuring parasympathetic activity) across two emotion induction paradigms, one involving narrations of personal experiences of self-disgust, shame and guilt, and one targeting self-disgust selectively via images of the self. Both paradigms had a neutral condition.
RESULTS
Photo paradigm elicited significant changes in physiological responses in patients relative to controls-higher percentages of HRV in the high frequency range but lower SCR amplitudes, with patients to present lower responses compared to controls. In the narration paradigm, only guilt condition elicited significant SCR differences between groups.
CONCLUSIONS
Consequently, lower level biophysiological factors are unlikely to cause elevated self-disgust levels in Parkinson's disease, which by implication suggests that higher level cognitive factors may be responsible.
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