Table 2.
Summary of emotion identification and EMG reactivity findings for participant groups
| Response parameter | Controls | bvFTD | rtvFTD | svPPA | nfvPPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emotion identification | |||||
| Anger | 4.6 (2.2) | 1.8 (1.4)a | 2.5 (1.6) | 1.1 (0.9)a | 3.4 (1.7) |
| Disgust | 8.1 (1.0) | 5.3 (3.3)a | 3.5 (3.9)a | 3.8 (3.3)a | 5.4 (3.3) |
| Fear | 5.4 (2.1) | 2.6 (2.0)a | 2.0 (1.7)a | 3.9 (2.0) | 4.4 (2.4) |
| Happiness | 9.2 (0.8) | 8.0 (3.2) | 8.3 (1.9) | 7.0 (3.2) | 7.8 (1.6) |
| Surprise | 8.4 (1.0) | 4.9 (2.8)a | 3.7 (2.8)a | 4.1 (3.2)a | 5.8 (3.0) |
| Overall (/50) | 35.7 (4.6) | 22.7 (9.5)a | 20.0 (9.7)a | 20.2 (7.9)a | 26.9 (9.3)a |
| Facial EMG reactivity | |||||
| Anger | 1.3 (3.3) | 0.5 (1.5) | 0.2 (1.0) | 1.2 (5.1) | 0.3 (4.0) |
| Disgust | 2.6 (8.9) | −0.9 (9.0)a | 0.5 (1.7) | 1.4 (6.2) | 0.9 (3.7) |
| Fear | 0.7 (2.9) | 0.3 (1.3) | −0.1 (1.9) | 0.8 (4.4) | −0.9 (3.5)a,b,c |
| Happiness | 1.3 (2.3) | 0.5 (1.3)d | 0.2 (1.6)d | 1.8 (8.2) | 2.3 (4.9) |
| Surprise | 1.0 (2.5) | 0.01 (3.1)c,d | 0.3 (1.8) | 1.7 (5.3) | 1.7 (3.8) |
| Overall | 1.4 (4.7) | 0.09 (4.4)a,c,d | 0.2 (1.6)a,c | 1.4 (6.0) | 0.9 (4.2) |
Mean (standard deviation) scores on the emotion identification task and mean facial EMG reactivity (as defined in Fig. 1) to viewed emotional expressions are shown for each emotion, in each participant group. asignificantly less than healthy controls, bsignificantly less than bvFTD, csignificantly less than svPPA, dsignificantly less than nfvPPA (all pbonf < 0.05). bvFTD, patient group with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (excluding right temporal cases); Controls, healthy control group; nfvPPA, patient group with nonfluent variant primary progressive aphasia; rtvFTD, patient subgroup with right temporal variant frontotemporal dementia; svPPA, patient group with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia.