Reduced malicious pleasure in Huntington's disease families

BAEZ, S., SANTAMARÍA- GARCÍA, H., OROZCO, J., FITTIPALDI, S., GARCÍA, A. M., PINO, M. & IBÁÑEZ, A.

La Havana

Congreso; 18th World Congress of the International Organization of Psychophysiology; 2016

International Organization of Psychophysiology

Schadenfreude ?pleasure at others? misfortunes? has been systematically related to the ventral striatum activity. This brain region has shown to be early affected in manifest and pre-manifest individuals with Huntington?s disease (HD). However, no studies have investigated the schadenfreude experience in HD. Twenty-one manifest HD patients, 19 first-degree asymptomatic relatives, and 23 healthy control participants performed an experimental task designed to trigger schadenfreude, envy (another social emotion acting as specific control condition) and control situations. Demographic and cognitive state data were compared among groups using ANOVA and Tukey?s HSD post-hoc tests. Chi square tests were applied to analyze categorical variables (gender). Ratings of schadenfreude and envy were analyzed via one-way ANOVAs. Tukey?s HSD post-hoc tests were used when appropriate. To control for the influence of general cognitive status on the experimental task, we applied ANCOVA tests adjusted independently for MOCA and IFS total scores. Only those effects that remained significant after covariation are reported. Results showed no differences among groups in ratings of envy (F(2,61)=1.57, p=0.21, η2=0.04) or ratings for neutral situations (F(2,61)=1.49, p=0.23, η2=0.04). However, there were significant differences in schadenfreude ratings (F(2,61)=21.30, p