Know thyself: Exploring interoceptive sensitivity in Parkinson's disease

TY - JOUR

T1 - Know thyself: Exploring interoceptive sensitivity in Parkinson's disease

AU - Ricciardi, Lucia

AU - Ferrazzano, Gina

AU - Demartini, Benedetta

AU - Morgante, Francesca

AU - Erro, Roberto

AU - Ganos, Christos

AU - Bhatia, Kailash P

AU - Berardelli, Alfredo

AU - Edwards, Mark

N1 - Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PY - 2016/5/15

Y1 - 2016/5/15

N2 - BACKGROUND: Although Parkinson's disease (PD) is defined by its motor symptoms, it is now well recognised that cognitive, affective and emotion domains are also impaired. The pathophysiology of these disabling non-motor symptoms (NMS) remains unclear; recently the involvement of limbic areas, including the insula, in the neurodegenerative process has been suggested to have a key role. These areas, and the insula in particular, are also been suggested as key regions for interoception; interoceptive sensitivity (IS) is a measure of the accuracy of perception of sensations from inside the body related to the function of internal organs.OBJECTIVES: To evaluate IS in PD patients by means of a well-established task: the heartbeat perception task. Moreover, we evaluated possible correlations between IS and psychological, affective and disease-related characteristics as well as fatigue perception in PD patients.METHODS: Twenty PD patients and 20 healthy subjects (HS) were included and underwent the heartbeat perception task. An extensive evaluation of motor, non-motor, affective and emotion domains was carried out.RESULTS: PD patients showed lower IS than HS (0.58±0.2 vs 0.72±0.1; p=0.04). PD reported higher scores in scales assessing depression (Hamilton depression scale: 8.7±5.8 vs 6.2±7.5; p=0.04); anhedonia (Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale: 26.8±9.7 vs 15.4±2.9; p=<0.001) and apathy (Apathy Evaluation Scale: 35.8±8.6 vs 27.8±6.8; p=0.008). No significant correlations were detected between IS and motor, non-motor, affective and emotion symptoms.CONCLUSIONS: PD patients have reduced interoceptive sensitivity. Future studies are encouraged to evaluate the importance of interoception in understanding the pathophysiology of affective/emotional symptoms in PD.

AB - BACKGROUND: Although Parkinson's disease (PD) is defined by its motor symptoms, it is now well recognised that cognitive, affective and emotion domains are also impaired. The pathophysiology of these disabling non-motor symptoms (NMS) remains unclear; recently the involvement of limbic areas, including the insula, in the neurodegenerative process has been suggested to have a key role. These areas, and the insula in particular, are also been suggested as key regions for interoception; interoceptive sensitivity (IS) is a measure of the accuracy of perception of sensations from inside the body related to the function of internal organs.OBJECTIVES: To evaluate IS in PD patients by means of a well-established task: the heartbeat perception task. Moreover, we evaluated possible correlations between IS and psychological, affective and disease-related characteristics as well as fatigue perception in PD patients.METHODS: Twenty PD patients and 20 healthy subjects (HS) were included and underwent the heartbeat perception task. An extensive evaluation of motor, non-motor, affective and emotion domains was carried out.RESULTS: PD patients showed lower IS than HS (0.58±0.2 vs 0.72±0.1; p=0.04). PD reported higher scores in scales assessing depression (Hamilton depression scale: 8.7±5.8 vs 6.2±7.5; p=0.04); anhedonia (Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale: 26.8±9.7 vs 15.4±2.9; p=<0.001) and apathy (Apathy Evaluation Scale: 35.8±8.6 vs 27.8±6.8; p=0.008). No significant correlations were detected between IS and motor, non-motor, affective and emotion symptoms.CONCLUSIONS: PD patients have reduced interoceptive sensitivity. Future studies are encouraged to evaluate the importance of interoception in understanding the pathophysiology of affective/emotional symptoms in PD.

KW - Aged

KW - Apathy

KW - Fatigue

KW - Female

KW - Heart Rate

KW - Humans

KW - Interoception

KW - Male

KW - Middle Aged

KW - Mood Disorders

KW - Neuropsychological Tests

KW - Parkinson Disease

KW - Perceptual Disorders

KW - Psychiatric Status Rating Scales

KW - Statistics, Nonparametric

KW - Surveys and Questionnaires

KW - Journal Article

KW - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

U2 - 10.1016/j.jns.2016.03.019

DO - 10.1016/j.jns.2016.03.019

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 27084227

VL - 364

SP - 110

EP - 115

JO - J NEUROL SCI

JF - J NEUROL SCI

SN - 0022-510X

ER -