Corticostriatal signatures of Schadenfreude: Evidence from Huntington?s disease

PINO, MARIANA; SEDEÑO, LUCAS; IBÁÑEZ, AGUSTÍN; BAEZ, SANDRA; SANTAMARÍA GARCÍA, HERNANDO; FITTIPALDI, SOL; BERRÍO, MILDRED; GARCÍA, ADOLFO M.

JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, NEUROSURGERY AND PSYCHIATRY

B M J PUBLISHING GROUP

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017

0022-3050

Schadenfreude ?pleasure at others? misfortunes? is a multidetermined social emotion which involves reward processing, mentalizing and perspective-taking abilities. Patients with HD exhibit reductions of this experience, suggesting a role of striatal degeneration in such an impairment. However, no study has directly assessed the relationship between regional brain atrophy in HD and reduced Schadenfreude. Here, we assessed whether gray matter (GM) atrophy in HD patients correlates with ratings of Schadenfreude. First, we compared the performance of 20 HD patients and 23 controls on an experimental task designed to trigger Schadenfreude and envy (another social emotion acting as a control condition). Second, we compared GM volume between groups. Third, we examined brain regions where atrophy might be associated with specific impairments in the patients. While both groups showed similar ratings of envy, HD patients reported lower Schadenfreude. The latter pattern was related to atrophy in regions of the reward system (ventral striatum) and the mentalizing network (precuneus and superior parietal lobule). Our results shed light on the intertwining of reward and socioemotional processes in Schadenfreude, while offering novel evidence about their neural correlates.