Perception and recognition of primary and secondary emotions by children with neurofibromatosis type 1

ABSTRACTABSTRACTNeurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a genetic disease that can lead to impaired social adaptation and functioning, thus affecting quality of life. To date, studies of these children’s social cognition abilities have been scant and far from exhaustive. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess the ability of children with NF1, compared with controls, to process facial expressions of emotions – not only including the usual primary emotions (happiness, anger, surprise, fear, sadness and disgust), but secondary emotions, too. To do so, the links between this ability and the characteristics of the disease (mode of transmission, visibility, and severity) were examined. A total of 38 children with NF1 aged 8-16 years 11 months (mean = 11.4, SD = 2.3) and 43 sociodemographically comparable control children performed the emotion perception and recognition tests of a social cognition battery. Results confirmed that the processing of primary and secondary emotions is impaired in children with NF1, but there were no significant links with either mode of transmission, severity, or visibility. These results encourage further comprehensive assessments of emotions in NF1, and suggest that investigations should be extended to higher level social cognition skills, such as theory of mind and moral judgments.KEYWORDS: Neurofibromatosis type 1basic emotionscomplex emotionsdisease characteristics AcknowledgmentsThis article was submitted as part of a doctoral thesis funded by Association Neurofibromatoses et Recklinghausen (OSE) and Angers University.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingAssociation Neurofibromatoses and Recklinghausen France and Angers University helped fund the doctoral thesis in which this study is registered.