Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 36 (2012) 237–253 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews jou rnal h omepa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/neubiorev Review Emotion recognition in Huntington’s disease: A systematic review Susie M.D. Henley a , Marianne J.U. Novak b , Chris Frost c , John King a , Sarah J. Tabrizi d,e , Jason D. Warren f,∗ a Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK b Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK c Medical Statistics Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, UK d Department of Clinical Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK e Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK f Dementia Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, 8–11 Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 18 February 2011 Received in revised form 27 May 2011 Accepted 2 June 2011 Keywords: Huntington’s disease Emotion recognition Cognition Neurodegenerative disorders a b s t r a c t There is increasing interest in the nature of the emotion recognition deficit in Huntington’s disease (HD). There are conflicting reports of disproportionate impairments for some emotions in some modalities in HD. A systematic review and narrative synthesis was conducted for studies investigating emotion recogni- tion in HD. Embase, MEDLINE, PsychINFO and Pubmed were searched from 1993 to 2010, and citations and reference lists were searched. 1724 citations were identified. Sixteen studies were included. In manifest HD evidence of impaired recognition of facial expressions of anger was found consistently, although recognition of all negative emotions (facial and vocal) tended to be impaired. In premanifest HD impairments were inconsistent, but are seen in all facial expressions of negative emotion. Inconsistency may represent the variability inherent in HD although may also be due to between-study differences in methodology. Current evidence supports the conclusion that recognition of all negative emotions tends to be impaired in HD, particularly in the facial domain. Future work should focus on using more ecologically-valid tests, and testing inter-modality differences. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 2. Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 2.1. Criteria for considering studies for this review .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 2.1.1. Types of studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238 2.1.2. Types of participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.1.3. Types of measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.2. Search methods for identification of studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.2.1. Electronic searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.2.2. Searching other resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.3. Data collection and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.3.1. Selection of studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.3.2. Data extraction and management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.3.3. Technical assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 2.3.4. Data synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 0 207 829 8773; fax: +44 0 207 676 2066. E-mail addresses: Susie.Henley@ucl.ac.uk (S.M.D. Henley), m.novak@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk (M.J.U. Novak), Chris.Frost@lshtm.ac.uk (C. Frost), John.King@ucl.ac.uk (J. King), Sarah.Tabrizi@prion.ucl.ac.uk (S.J. Tabrizi), jwarren@drc.ion.ucl.ac.uk (J.D. Warren). 0149-7634/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.06.002