Emotion recognition deficits in Huntington's disease (HD) are well-established. However, most previous studies have measured emotion recognition using stereotypical and intense facial expressions, which are easily recognized and artificial in their appearance. By contrast, everyday expressions are often more challenging to recognize, as they are subtle and non-stereotypical. Therefore, previous studies may have inflated the performance of HD patients and it is difficult to generalize their results to facial expressions encountered in everyday social interactions. In the present study, we tested 21 symptomatic HD patients and 28 healthy controls with a traditional facial expression set, as well as a novel stimulus set which exhibits subtle and non-stereotypical facial expressions. While HD patients demonstrated poor emotion recognition in both sets, when tested with the novel, ecologically looking facial expressions, patients' performance declined to chance level. Intriguingly, patients' emotion recognition deficit was predicted only by the severity of their motor symptoms, not by their cognitive status. This suggests a possible mechanism for emotion recognition impairments in HD, in line with embodiment theories. From this point of view, poor motor control may affect patients' ability to subtly produce and simulate a perceived facial expression, which in turn may contribute to their impaired recognition.

中文翻译：

---

通过亨廷顿氏病的微妙和非定型动态面部表情识别情绪。

亨廷顿舞蹈病（HD）中的情绪识别缺陷已得到充分证实。但是，大多数以前的研究都使用定型和强烈的面部表情来测量情感识别，这些表情在外观上很容易识别和虚假。相比之下，日常表达通常难以识别，因为它们是微妙的，非定型的。因此，以前的研究可能会使HD患者的表现夸张，并且很难将其结果推广到日常社交互动中遇到的面部表情。在本研究中，我们测试了21名有症状的HD患者和28名健康对照，他们使用了传统的面部表情集以及表现出微妙和非定型面部表情的新型刺激集。虽然高清患者在两组中均表现出较差的情感识别能力，但使用新颖的，具有生态外观的面部表情进行测试时，患者的表现却下降到了偶然的水平。有趣的是，患者的情绪识别缺陷只能通过运动症状的严重程度来预测，而不能通过认知状态来预测。这暗示了根据实施例理论的HD情感识别障碍的可能机制。从这个角度来看，不良的运动控制可能会影响患者巧妙地产生和模拟感知的面部表情的能力，进而可能会导致他们的识别能力受损。情绪识别缺陷只能通过其运动症状的严重程度来预测，而不能通过其认知状态来预测。这暗示了根据实施例理论的HD情感识别障碍的可能机制。从这个角度来看，不良的运动控制可能会影响患者巧妙地产生和模拟感知的面部表情的能力，进而可能会导致他们的识别能力受损。情绪识别缺陷只能通过其运动症状的严重程度来预测，而不能通过其认知状态来预测。这暗示了根据实施例理论的HD情感识别障碍的可能机制。从这个角度来看，不良的运动控制可能会影响患者巧妙地产生和模拟感知的面部表情的能力，进而可能会导致他们的识别能力受损。