Cerebellar Contribution to Anger Recognition Deficits in Huntington's Disease

Although there is increasing evidence that cerebellar loss of grey matter volume (GMV) is associated with affective deficits, this has not been tested for patients suffering from Huntington's disease (HD), who show a pronounced impairment in the recognition of anger. We assessed GMV in 18 symptomatic HD patients and 18 healthy controls using voxel-based morphometry. The GMV of cerebellar subregions was correlated with participants' intensity and accuracy ratings for facial expressions of basic emotions from the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces (Lundqvist et al. 1998). The patients gave lower and less accurate anger ratings for angry faces than controls. This anger recognition deficit was correlated with atrophy of selected hemispheric and vermal regions of the cerebellum. Furthermore, cerebellar volume reductions of the HD patients were associated with longer disease duration and greater functional impairment. The data imply that anger recognition deficits could potentially serve as indicators of disease onset and progression in HD. Furthermore, the patients might profit from specific affect trainings.