The following is a summary of “Assessing multimodal emotion recognition in multiple sclerosis with a clinically accessible measure,” published in the March 2024 issue of Neurology by Pumphrey et al.

Despite known cognitive impairments in Multiple sclerosis (MS), including emotion recognition, studies haven’t explored how people with MS recognize emotions across different channels.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study evaluating how well a common clinical tool measures the recognition of emotions conveyed through multiple channels in people with MS.

They assessed emotion recognition in 31 individuals with MS and 21 control participants. The Advanced Clinical Solutions Social Perceptions Subtest (ACS-SP), Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS), and assessments for premorbid functioning, mood, and fatigue were all utilized. The ANCOVAs analyzed group differences with education as a control, while correlational analyses explored factors in emotion recognition across both participant groups.

The results showed that the MS group exhibited significantly poorer performance on the ACS-SP than the control group, with F(1, 49) = 5.32, P=.025. Noteworthy associations between emotion recognition and cognitive functions were solely observed within the MS group, specifically for information processing speed (r = 0.59, P<.001), verbal learning (r = 0.52, P=.003) and memory (r = 0.65, P<0.001), and visuospatial learning (r = 0.62, P<0.001) and memory (r = 0.52, P=.003). Emotion recognition didn’t correlate with premorbid functioning, mood, or fatigue in either group.

Investigators concluded that ACS-SP revealed impaired emotion recognition in MS, potentially linked to broader cognitive issues, thus aiding clinicians advocating for social cognition assessments in MS.

Source: msard-journal.com/article/S2211-0348(24)00182-2/fulltext#%20