Decreased emotional creativity and its relationship with cognitive functions in Parkinson’s disease: A preliminary study

Abstract

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) suffer from a wide range of non-motor symptoms, including cognitive deficits and impairment of emotional processing. The present study aimed to explore in PD patients compared to healthy adults the relationship between cognitive performance and emotional creativity (EC), defined as a set of cognitive abilities and personality traits related to originality and appropriateness of emotional experience. PD patients (n = 22) and healthy controls (n = 40) underwent a complex neuropsychological assessment and were administrated with the self-reported Emotional Creativity Inventory (ECI) questionnaire. To explore the relationship between cognitive tests and the ECI, a regression analysis was conducted. PD patients and healthy controls differed significantly in the EC component Preparedness as well as in the neuropsychological test battery scores. PD patients showed lower scores in cognitive tests and a lower score in Preparedness compared to healthy adults. The output of the regression analysis showed that the extent to which the neuropsychological tests relate to the ECI components is low.

Keywords:

• Aging
• cognitive functions
• emotional creativity
• Parkinson's disease

Disclosure statement

The authors state that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA CR), project no. 18-26094S “Emotional creativity and cognitive decline in the elderly” and by Charles University, PROGRES Q27.