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Perception of Communicative and Non-communicative Motion-Defined Gestures in Parkinson’s Disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Abhishek Jaywant ,
Victor Wasserman ,
Maaria Kemppainen ,
Sandy Neargarder  and
Alice Cronin-Golomb
Abhishek Jaywant
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Victor Wasserman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Maaria Kemppainen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
Sandy Neargarder
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts Department of Psychology, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts
Alice Cronin-Golomb*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Alice Cronin-Golomb, Boston University, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 648 Beacon Street, Floor 2, Boston, MA 02215. E-mail: alicecg@bu.edu
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Abstract

Objectives: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is associated with deficits in social cognition and visual perception, but little is known about how the disease affects perception of socially complex biological motion, specifically motion-defined communicative and non-communicative gestures. We predicted that individuals with PD would perform more poorly than normal control (NC) participants in discriminating between communicative and non-communicative gestures, and in describing communicative gestures. We related the results to the participants’ gender, as there are gender differences in social cognition in PD. Methods: The study included 23 individuals with PD (10 men) and 24 NC participants (10 men) matched for age and education level. Participants viewed point-light human figures that conveyed communicative and non-communicative gestures and were asked to describe each gesture while discriminating between the two gesture types. Results: PD as a group were less accurate than NC in describing non-communicative but not communicative gestures. Men with PD were impaired in describing and discriminating between communicative as well as non-communicative gestures. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated PD-related impairments in perceiving and inferring the meaning of biological motion gestures. Men with PD may have particular difficulty in understanding the communicative gestures of others in interpersonal exchanges. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1–11)

Keywords

Neurodegenerative diseasesGenderInterpersonal relationsMotor activitySocial behaviorBiological motion

Information

Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , May 2016 , pp. 540 - 550
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2016 

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