Freezing of gait and affective theory of mind in Parkinson disease

Description

Affective "Theory of Mind" (ToM) is the specific ability to represent own and others' emotional states and feelings. Several studies examined affective ToM ability in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), using the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes test" (RMET). However, there has been no agreement as to whether or not affective ToM ability is impaired in PD and such discrepancy may be due to the heterogeneous clinical presentation of PD. Affective disturbance has been linked to the akinetic-rigid form of PD and to gait disturbances, like freezing of gait (FOG). Particularly, FOG has been associated with dysfunction in striatum ability of processing affective inputs. Here we hypothesized that the presence of FOG can be associated with impaired affective ToM ability in PD patients.

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