1. To obtain the normative data for a test of facial emotion recognition across a pan-Indian population
2. To study the social cognition in patients with PD and compare it with normal controls
   

Social cognition refers to the ability to correctly recognise emotions and respond appropriately to the situation. Recent studies have shown that social cognition may be impaired in Parkinson’s Disease

Data was collected from 1792 normal individuals across India and 75 patients with Parkinson’s disease.  It was a self administered questionnaire with 20 questions and 2 choices for each question. The first 10 were basic emotions and the latter 10 were complex. The PD patients were also assessed using PDQ8 scores and Hoehn and Yahr staging for quality of life and staging of the disease.

Patients with PD were found to have significantly lower scores for both basic and complex emotions, when compared to healthy controls. In controls the scores were significantly higher in women.  However this difference was absent in patients with PD. The stage and duration of disease did not have an effect on the score. Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­ level had an effect on the score in patients with PD while age did not have an effect. Patients with PD performed significantly worse on recognition of complex emotion compared to basic emotion.The quality of life was significantly lower in patients with low scores of emotion recognition

1. This data may be used to formulate normal values for comparison with various disease states, in which testing of social cognition may be needed.
2. Impaired social cognition is a definite non-motor symptom of PD and could offer an alternative explanation regarding the mechanism of hypomimia in PD. The degree of involvement does not parallel the progression of motor symptoms of PD
3. Impaired social cognition can impair the quality of life in patients with PD.