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A study conducted by Marc Teichmann and Carole Azuar at the Institute of Brain and Spine in Paris (France) and Pitié-Salpêtrière show a particularly marked alteration of moral emotions in patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The results, published in the Diary of Alzheimer's disease, open a new approach for early, sensitive and specific diagnosis of FTD.
Frontotemporal dementia is a cognitive and behavioral disorder caused by degenerative alteration of the anterior regions of the brain. The disease is characterized by behavioral disorders such as progressive apathy, loss of interest, social withdrawal, loss of inhibition and treatment of emotions.
We have known for a long time that these patients demonstrate an alteration of the recognition of emotions and theory of the mind, that is to say an ability to understand the mental states of others: what they think, what they feel, what they like … But this emotional blunting also affect a specific type of emotions called moral emotions, which are crucial for human interactions? "
Marc Teichmann, coordinator of the study
Moral emotions can be defined as "affective experiences favoring cooperation and group cohesion", including emotions such as admiration, shame or pity. They are distinguished from other emotions in that they are closely related to cultural context, moral rules and innate moral representations. In the context of the FTD, which is characterized mainly by behavioral and social interactions, the study of this particular set of emotions is a major challenge to better understand the disease and to refine the accuracy of the diagnosis.
In this study, researchers and clinicians from ICM (Institute of Brain and Spine) and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital have come up with a test to badess emotions moral. It is composed of 42 scenarios for which the subject has to select, on 4 possibilities of answer, the feeling that he has in the situation of scenario. The performance of FTD patients (N = 22) is compared to the performance of 45 healthy subjects and 15 patients with Alzheimer's disease. To badess the specificity of the deterioration of moral emotions at FTD, the researchers compared the 42 moral scenarios involving a human-to-human context and provoking moral emotions to scenarios that evoke similar emotions without any human valence. For example, it is possible to feel admiration for an altruistic act and for the architecture of a building. In both cases, the emotion is identified as an admiration but the context is totally different (moral or extra-moral).
The results show that moral emotions are much more altered than emotions without moral value. In contrast, patients with Alzheimer's disease showed no impairment compared to healthy subjects and had similar performance with moral and extra-moral emotions.
Our results confirm that emotions are generally disturbed by emotions and reveal a particularly profound alteration of moral emotions. Our new test tool appears to provide an early, sensitive and specific marker for FTD diagnosis, while reliably distinguishing FTD from patients with Alzheimer's disease. It could also be a marker for other diseases involving the collapse of moral emotions, as for example in the case of psychopathic individuals. "
Marc Teichmann
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