Multidisciplinary rehabilitation reduces hypothalamic grey matter volume loss in individuals with preclinical Huntington's disease: A nine-month pilot study.

Background: Hypothalamic pathology is a well-documented feature of Huntington's disease (HD) and is believed to contribute to circadian rhythm and habitual sleep disturbances. Currently, no therapies exist to combat hypothalamic changes, nor circadian rhythm and habitual sleep disturbances in HD.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of multidisciplinary rehabilitation on hypothalamic volume, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), circadian rhythm and habitual sleep in individuals with preclinical HD.

Diminished facial EMG responses to disgusting scenes and happy and fearful faces in Huntington's disease.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with impaired facial emotion recognition and altered subjective experience of emotion. These impairments likely result from the effects of the disease on underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Studies using self-report to examine emotional experiences have been ambiguous regarding whether experiences are diminished or exaggerated, possibly due to cognitive impairment and lack of insight in HD.

Visual scanning of the eye region of human faces predicts emotion recognition performance in Huntington's disease.

Objective: Previous research has consistently shown that the ability to recognize emotions from facial expressions is impaired in Huntington's disease (HD). The aim of this study was to examine whether people with the gene expansion for HD visually scan the most emotionally informative features of human faces less than unaffected individuals, and whether altered visual scanning predicts emotion recognition in HD beyond general disease-related decline.

Method: We recorded eye movements of 25 participants either in the late premanifest or early stage of HD and 25 age-matched healthy control participants during a face-viewing task.

Abnormal Visual Scanning of Emotionally Evocative Natural Scenes in Huntington's Disease.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative movement disorder associated with deficits in the processing of emotional stimuli, including alterations in the self-reported subjective experience of emotion when presented with pictures of emotional scenes. The aim of this study was to determine whether individuals with HD, compared to unaffected controls, display abnormal visual scanning of emotionally evocative natural scenes. Using eye-tracking, we recorded eye-movements of 25 HD participants (advanced pre-symptomatic and early symptomatic) and 25 age-matched unaffected control participants during a picture viewing task.

Beyond emotion recognition deficits: A theory guided analysis of emotion processing in Huntington's disease.

Deficits in facial emotion recognition in Huntington's disease (HD) have been extensively researched, however, a theory-based integration of these deficits into the broader picture of emotion processing is lacking. To describe the full extent of emotion processing deficits we reviewed the clinical research literature in HD, including a consideration of research in Parkinson's disease, guided by a theoretical model on emotion processing, the Component Process Model. Further, to contribute to understanding the mechanisms underlying deficient emotion recognition, we discussed the literature in light of specific emotion recognition theories.