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COPPADIS Study Group., [Background and purpose] Reduced facial expression of emotions is a very frequent symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) and has been considered part of the motor features of the disease. However, the neural correlates of hypomimia and the relationship between hypomimia and other non-motor symptoms of PD are poorly understood., [Methods] The clinical and structural brain correlates of hypomimia were studied. For this purpose, cross-sectional data from the COPPADIS study database were used. Age, disease duration, levodopa equivalent daily dose, Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III), severity of apathy and depression and global cognitive status were collected. At the imaging level, analyses based on gray matter volume and cortical thickness were used., [Results] After controlling for multiple confounding variables such as age or disease duration, the severity of hypomimia was shown to be indissociable from the UPDRS-III speech and bradykinesia items and was significantly related to the severity of apathy (β = 0.595; p, [Conclusion] Reduced facial expressivity in PD is related to the severity of symptoms of apathy and is mediated by the dysfunction of brain systems involved in motor control and in the recognition, integration and expression of emotions. Therefore, hypomimia in PD may be conceptualized not exclusively as a motor symptom but as a consequence of a multidimensional deficit leading to a symptom where motor and non-motor aspects converge., Fundación Curemos el Parkinson (https://curemoselparkinson.org/).

COPPADIS Study Group., Quality of life (QOL) plays an important role in independent living in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, being crucial to know what factors impact QoL throughout the course of the disease. Here we identified predictors of QoL impairment in PD patients from a Spanish cohort. PD patients recruited from 35 centers of Spain from the COPPADIS cohort from January 2016, to November 2017, were followed up during 2 years. Health-related QoL (HRQoL) and global QoL (GQoL) were assessed with the 39-item Parkinson’s disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) and the EUROHIS-QOL 8-item index (EUROHIS-QOL8), respectively, at baseline (V0) and at 24 months ± 1 month (V2). Clinically significant QoL impairment was defined as presenting an increase (PDQ-39SI) or decrement (EUROHIS-QOL8) at V2 ≥ 10% of the score at baseline (V0). A comparison with a control group was conducted for GQoL. GQoL did not change significantly in PD patients (N = 507; p = 0.686) or in the control group (N = 119; p = 0.192). The mean PDQ-39SI was significantly increased in PD patients (62.7 ± 8.5 years old; 58.8% males; N = 500) by 21.6% (from 16.7 ± 13 to 20.3 ± 16.4; p, Mir P. has received honoraria from AbbVie, Abbott, Allergan, Bial, Merz, UCB and Zambon and have received grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [PI16/01575] co-founded by ISCIII (Subdirección General de Evaluación y Fomento de la Investigación) and by Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), the Consejería de Economía, Innovación, Ciencia y Empleo de la Junta de Andalucía [CVI-02526, CTS-7685], the Consejería de Salud y Bienestar Social de la Junta de Andalucía [PI-0437-2012, PI-0471-2013], the Sociedad Andaluza de Neurología, the Jacques and Gloria Gossweiler Foundation, the Fundación Alicia Koplowitz, the Fundación Mutua Madrileña.

Introducció: L’estudi de l’empatia des de la neurociència i la neuroimatge funcional ha suggerit l’existència de dos circuits diferents: el de l’empatia afectiva i el de l’empatia cognitiva. Ara bé, els correlats neuroanatòmics de l’empatia no són ben coneguts ni hi ha un consens en la literatura en si existeixen diferències de gènere. L’actual treball pretén explorar les diferències de gènere en les diferents escales d’un test d’empatia validat en població espanyola i investigar les diferències neuroanatòmiques entre persones amb alta i baixa empatia. Mètodes: Es varen analitzar imatges per ressonància magnètica potenciades en T1 adquirides amb un aparell de 3-tesla i el Test d’Empatia Cognitiva i Afectiva (TECA) en una mostra de 42 adults sans (22 dones i 20 homes) emparellats per edat, anys d’educació, nivell educatiu, ocupació i estimació de quocient d’intel·ligència. Es va utilitzar un model lineal general amb les dades de gruix cortical per fer comparacions entre grups d’empatia Alta (A) i Mitjana-Baixa (MB). Es van realitzar també correlacions i comparacions grupals amb les parcel·lacions corticals i segmentacions subcorticals. Resultats: En 4 de les 5 escales del test d’empatia es van trobar diferències de gènere. No obstant, no hi havia diferències entre la proporció d’homes i dones entre els grups d’empatia A o MB. En l’escala d’Adopció de Perspectives, el grup d’empatia A tenia un major gruix cortical respecte al de MB en el còrtex prefrontal, el lòbul parietal inferior i en regions occipitals. Les puntuacions en les escales d’empatia cognitiva van correlacionar amb regions frontals i temporals. No es van trobar correlacions ni diferències significatives en cap estructura subcortical excepte en el tàlem dret que tenia major volum en el grup d’empatia A en l’escala d’Estrès Empàtic. Conclusions: El còrtex orbitofrontal i el cingulat són estructures relacionades amb l’empatia cognitiva. El processament empàtic no és diferent entre homes i dones. Background: From a neuroscientific and functional neuroimaging approach, the study of empathy has suggested the existence of two different networks in the empathy construct: the affective empathy and the cognitive empathy. However, neuroanatomic correlates of empathy are not entirely known and there’s no consensus in literature about the existence of gender differences. Current work, aims to explore gender differences in a Spanish validated empathy test scales and to investigate neuroanatomic differences between high empathy and low empathy subjects. Methods: T1-weighted 3-tesla MRI and the Affective Empathy and Cognitive Test (TECA) were analysed in a sample of 42 healthy adults (22 women and 20 men) matched by age, years of education, level of education, occupation and intelligence quotient estimation. A general linear model with cortical thickness data was used to compare the High empathy group (H) and the Medium-Low group (ML). Group comparisons and correlations were also assessed with cortical parcellations and subcortical segmentations. Results: Gender differences were found in 4 out of 5 empathy test scales. However, there were no significant differences between the proportion of men and women in the empathy groups H or ML. In the Perspective Taking scale, the H empathy group showed increased cortical thickness related to the ML empathy group in the prefrontal cortex, the inferior parietal lobule and in occipital regions. Scores from cognitive empathy scales correlated with frontal and temporal regions. No correlations or significant differences were found in any subcortical structure except for the right thalamus that had an increased volume in the H empathy group in the Empathic Stress scale. Conclusions: The orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices are brain structures related to cognitive empathy. Gender was not a key variable in the empathic response.