Altered Emotional Body Sensations in Parkinson’s Disease

Emotions wield considerable influence over our behavior, governing hormonal balance and critical bodily functions. They can also elicit potent physical reactions, like heightened heart rate and blood pressure when a berry picker encounters a bear or butterflies flutter in the stomach on a first date. These emotional responses are mirrored in the symptoms of various neurological and psychiatric disorders like parkinson’s disease, often exacerbating disease manifestations, particularly those stemming from negative emotions.

Parkinson’s disease, a neurological condition affecting movement, manifests in motor symptoms such as slowness, stiffness, and tremors. It is also linked to non-motor symptoms like depression, anxiety, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction, impacting blood circulation and gastrointestinal function.

Dr. Kalle Niemi, a neurology specialist, along with his colleagues, studied the bodily sensations associated with basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and neutrality) in Finnish patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Subjects were asked to depict their symptoms and bodily sensations linked to different emotions on an electronic body map using a computer mouse.

Parkinson’s patients exhibited significant differences in bodily sensations related to basic emotions compared to control subjects. Notably, sensations of anger, typically felt in the chest among healthy individuals, diminished and shifted toward the abdominal region as Parkinson’s disease advanced, aligning with autonomic nervous system dysfunction associated with the condition.

“In recent years, there has been a growing realization that the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease have a significant impact on the patients’ quality of life. The results of our study highlight yet another non-motor phenomenon.”- MD Kalle Niemi

Emotional abnormalities are common in psychiatric disorders, but this study is the first to show abnormalities in the emotion-related bodily sensations in a neurological disorder. The results may open up new perspectives into the symptoms and possibly even treatment of symptoms in neurological disorders.

“The results of our study raise many interesting questions about the role of emotions in the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Extending our research method to other diseases offers new possibilities for neurology research,” summarises Juho Joutsa, Professor of Neurology at the University of Turku and principal investigator of the study.

For more information: Bodily Maps of Symptoms and Emotions in Parkinson’s Disease, Movement Disorders, https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.29785