Emotion Processing Among Patients With ALS

Summary

The goal of this observational study is to learn about the emotional perception in people with ALS disease compared to people with other neuromuscular disease and healthy controls. The main questions it aims to answer are: * How people with ALS judge happy and angry faces and what their "insight" into these judgements are like * How their autonomic responses differ from the other two test group Participants will asked to judge if a face presents a happy emotion or angry emotion. Researchers will compare the ALS group responses with neuromuscular diseases group and healthy control group responses to see if the ALS group judge more happy faces than angry.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

* ALS patients, ambulant and hospitalized

  * Able to give informed consent
  * Diagnosed with ALS or probable ALS according to the existing revision of the El Escorial Criteria 21,22.
* Patients with a peripheral neuromuscular disease, ambulant and hospitalized

  * Able to give informed consent
  * Diagnosed with a peripheral neuromuscular disease, that does not affect CNS, including but not limited to Myasthenia Gravis and polyneuropathy
* Healthy controls

  * Able to give informed consent
  * Age and gender matched to ALS patients

Exclusion Criteria:

* All Participants

  * Other severe medical, neurological, or psychiatric disorders
  * Visual impairment to an extent that interferes with the ability to perform of the test
  * Severe motor or cognitive deficits, to the extent that the test-task cannot be performed
  * Alcohol or drug abuse to an extent the interferes with task performance
* Patients with a peripheral neuromuscular disease

  ● Familial predisposition to ALS
* Healthy controls

  * Familial predisposition to ALS (first degree relatives)
  * Medical treatment that affects the central nervous system (e.g., antidepressants)

Conditions6

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