Bodily Maps of Symptoms and Emotions in Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

Background: Emotions are reflected in bodily sensations, and these reflections are abnormal in psychiatric conditions. However, emotion-related bodily sensations have not been studied in neurological disorders. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with altered bodily representations of emotions. Methods: Symptoms and emotion-related sensations were investigated in 380 patients with PD and 79 control subjects, using a topographical self-report method, termed body sensation mapping. The bodily mapping data were analyzed with pixelwise generalized linear models and principal component analyses. Results: Bodily maps of symptoms showed characteristic patterns of PD motor symptom distributions. Compared with control subjects, PD patients showed decreased parasternal sensation of anger, and longer PD symptom duration was associated with increased abdominal sensation of anger (PFWE < 0.05). The PD-related sensation patterns were abnormal across all basic emotions (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The results demonstrate altered bodily maps of emotions in PD, providing novel insight into the nonmotor effects of PD. © 2024 The Authors. Movement Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society.