A Multisensory Deficit in the Perception of Pleasantness in Parkinson's Disease

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Kathrin S. Utz - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Max Martini - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Anne Mrochen - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Vera Lambrecht - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Patrick Süß - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Bertold Renner - , Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Jessica Freiherr - , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (Author)
  • T. Schenk - , Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Author)
  • Jürgen Winkler - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Franz Marxreiter - , University Hospital at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)

Abstract

Background: There is growing interest in non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), due to the impact on quality of life. Anhedonia, the inability to experience joy and lust, has a prevalence of up to 46% in PD. The perception of pleasantness of an odor is reduced in anhedonia without PD. We previously showed a reduced hedonic olfactory perception in PD, i.e., patients evaluated odors as less pleasant or unpleasant compared to controls. This deficit correlated with anhedonia. Objective: We aimed to confirm these findings. Moreover, we hypothesized that the perception of pleasantness in PD is affected on a multisensory level and correlates with anhedonia. Therefore, we assessed olfactory, visual and acoustic evaluation of pleasantness in PD and healthy individuals. Methods: Participants had to rate the pleasantness of 22 odors, pictures, and sounds on a nine-point Likert scale. Depression, anhedonia, and apathy were assessed by means of questionnaires. Results of the pleasantness-rating were compared between groups and correlated to scores of the questionnaires. Results: In particular pleasant and unpleasant stimuli across all three modalities are perceived less intense in PD, suggesting that a reduced range of perception of pleasantness is a multisensory phenomenon. However, only a reduction of visual hedonic perception correlated with anhedonia in PD. A correlation of reduced perception of pleasantness with apathy or depression was not present. Conclusion: We provide evidence for a multisensory deficit in the perception of pleasantness. Further studies should delineate the underlying neural circuity and the diagnostic value to detect neuropsychiatric symptoms in PD.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2035-2045
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Parkinson's disease
Volume11
Issue number4
Publication statusPublished - 2021
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 34366379
ORCID /0000-0003-0845-6793/work/139025196

Keywords

Keywords

  • affective pictures, anhedonia, apathy, depression, hyposmia, non-motor symptoms, Parkinson's disease, Sniffin' Sticks