Effect of Parkinson Disease on Emotion Perception Using the Persian Affective Voices Test

Revisiting Dysarthria Treatment Across Languages: The Hybrid Approach

PURPOSE

Ten years after Miller and Lowit's (2014) groundbreaking book providing a cross-linguistic perspective on motor speech disorders, we ask where we are regarding dysarthria treatment across languages in two specific populations: adults with Parkinson's disease (PD) and children with cerebral palsy (CP).

METHOD

In this commentary, we consider preliminary evidence for both language-independent and language-specific approaches to treatment and propose a hybrid approach to speech treatment across languages, centered on the individual with dysarthria who speaks any given language.

CONCLUSIONS

Treatment research on individuals with dysarthria secondary to PD and CP is advancing, but several areas remain to be explored. Next steps are suggested for addressing the paucity and complexity of cross-linguistic speech treatment research.

Voice and Communication Training Program Improves Performance of University Students in Oral Presentations

PURPOSE

To investigate the effect of a voice and communication training program for oral presentations on higher education students.

METHODS

The proposed training program was based on the areas of social skills, voice projection techniques, and neurolinguistic programming. Thirty-eight students participated in the training with active learning methodologies at the university. Before and after the intervention, the participants recorded a short oral presentation on a topic of their choice. The recording was presented to the other participants and to a panel formed by three examiners (two articulation therapists and a psychologist), who evaluated the oral presentation performances. Moreover, each individual self-assessed their communication. The evaluation criteria covered the linguistic aspects, formal and non-formal, verbal and non-verbal communication, planning, and elaboration of the presentation.

RESULTS

All participants improved their performance in oral presentations regarding verbal and para-verbal aspects, ability to keep the audience, emotional control, planning, objective, content, approach, organization, visual resource, form of presentation, language, and general elements (general presentation).

CONCLUSION

The proposed training program is effective in improving the performance of university students in oral presentations.

An Evaluation of Cross-Cultural Adaptations of Social Cognition Testing: A Systematic Review

Social cognition remains one of the most difficult cognitive domains to assess in diverse populations due to a lack of culturally appropriate tools. This study systematically reviewed literature on neuropsychological tests for social cognition that have been translated, adapted, are cross-cultural, or are assembled for diverse, specifically "Global South," populations. The aim was to identify assessments appropriate for diverse populations, outline and evaluate their methodological approaches, and provide procedural recommendations for future research. The PRISMA systematic review search strategy produced 10,957 articles, of which 287 were selected for full-text screening. The study had to include a neuropsychological assessment of social cognition. The full text of the resulting 287 articles was then screened; the study had to include a translated, adapted, cross-cultural test, or an assembled test for Global South populations. Eighty-four articles were included in this study: 24 for emotion recognition, 45 for theory of mind, 9 for moral reasoning, and six for social cognition in general. Overall, there were 31 translations, 27 adaptations, 14 cross-cultural tests, and 12 assembled tests for Global South populations. Regarding quality, 35 were of low quality, 27 were of moderate quality, and 22 were high quality. This study provides an overview of social cognition tests modified or assembled for diverse populations and gives examples of methodological procedures. It highlights the variability in procedure quality and provides possible reasons for this variability. Finally, it suggests a need to report rigorous modification and assembly procedure in order to have modified and assembled social cognition tests appropriate for diverse populations.

Profiling Social Cognition in Premanifest Huntington's Disease

OBJECTIVE

Discrepancies exist in reports of social cognition deficits in individuals with premanifest Huntington's disease (HD); however, the reason for this variability has not been investigated. The aims of this study were to (1) evaluate group- and individual-level social cognitive performance and (2) examine intra-individual variability (dispersion) across social cognitive domains in individuals with premanifest HD.

METHOD

Theory of mind (ToM), social perception, empathy, and social connectedness were evaluated in 35 individuals with premanifest HD and 29 healthy controls. Cut-off values beneath the median and 1.5 × the interquartile range below the 25th percentile (P25 - 1.5 × IQR) of healthy controls for each variable were established for a profiling method. Dispersion between social cognitive domains was also calculated.

RESULTS

Compared to healthy controls, individuals with premanifest HD performed worse on all social cognitive domains except empathy. Application of the profiling method revealed a large proportion of people with premanifest HD fell below healthy control median values across ToM (>80%), social perception (>57%), empathy (>54%), and social behaviour (>40%), with a percentage of these individuals displaying more pronounced impairments in empathy (20%) and ToM (22%). Social cognition dispersion did not differ between groups. No significant correlations were found between social cognitive domains and mood, sleep, and neurocognitive outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

Significant group-level social cognition deficits were observed in the premanifest HD cohort. However, our profiling method showed that only a small percentage of these individuals experienced marked difficulties in social cognition, indicating the importance of individual-level assessments, particularly regarding future personalised treatments.

Deficits in emotion perception and cognition in patients with parkinson's disease: A systematic review

Non-motor symptoms (NMS) are common among Parkinson's disease (PD) patients and have a significant impact on quality of life. NMS such as deficits in emotion perception are gaining due focus in the recent times. As emotion perception and cognitive functions share certain common neural substrates, it becomes pertinent to evaluate existing emotion perception deficits in view of underlying cognitive deficits. The current systematic review aimed at examining studies on emotion perception PD in the last decade. We carried out a systematic review of 44 studies from the PubMed database. We reviewed studies examining emotion perception and associated cognitive deficits, especially executive function and visuospatial function in PD. This review also examines how early and advanced PD differ in emotion perception deficits and how the presence of common neuropsychiatric conditions such as anxiety, apathy, and depression as well as neurosurgical procedure such as deep brain stimulation affect emotion perception. The need for future research employing a comprehensive evaluation of neurocognitive functions and emotion perception is underscored as it has a significant bearing on planning holistic intervention strategies.

Auditory Dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease

PD is a progressive and complex neurological disorder with heterogeneous symptomatology. PD is characterized by classical motor features of parkinsonism and nonmotor symptoms and involves extensive regions of the nervous system, various neurotransmitters, and protein aggregates. Extensive evidence supports auditory dysfunction as an additional nonmotor feature of PD. Studies indicate a broad range of auditory impairments in PD, from the peripheral hearing system to the auditory brainstem and cortical areas. For instance, research demonstrates a higher occurrence of hearing loss in early-onset PD and evidence of abnormal auditory evoked potentials, event-related potentials, and habituation to novel stimuli. Electrophysiological data, such as auditory P3a, also is suggested as a sensitive measure of illness duration and severity. Improvement in auditory responses following dopaminergic therapies also indicates the presence of similar neurotransmitters (i.e., glutamate and dopamine) in the auditory system and basal ganglia. Nonetheless, hearing impairments in PD have received little attention in clinical practice so far. This review summarizes evidence of peripheral and central auditory impairments in PD and provides conclusions and directions for future empirical and clinical research. © 2020 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.