Vocal emotion processing deficits in HIV-infected individuals

• Published in: Journal of neurovirology 2017-04, Vol.23 (2), p.304-312
• Main Authors: González-Baeza, A., Arribas, J. R., Pérez-Valero, I., Monge, S., Bayón, C., Martín, P., Rubio, S., Carvajal, F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Affective Symptoms - complications; Affective Symptoms - diagnostic imaging; Affective Symptoms - physiopathology; Affective Symptoms - virology; Auditory Perception; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain Mapping; Case-Control Studies; Cognitive Dysfunction - complications; Cognitive Dysfunction - diagnostic imaging; Cognitive Dysfunction - physiopathology; Cognitive Dysfunction - virology; Female; Frontal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Frontal Lobe - pathology; Frontal Lobe - virology; Hippocampus - diagnostic imaging; Hippocampus - pathology; Hippocampus - virology; HIV Infections - complications; HIV Infections - diagnostic imaging; HIV Infections - physiopathology; HIV Infections - virology; Humans; Immunology; Infectious Diseases; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Neurosciences; Parietal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Parietal Lobe - pathology; Parietal Lobe - virology; Speech; Temporal Lobe - diagnostic imaging; Temporal Lobe - pathology; Temporal Lobe - virology; Thalamus - diagnostic imaging; Thalamus - pathology; Thalamus - virology; Virology; White Matter - diagnostic imaging; White Matter - pathology; White Matter - virology
• ISSN: 1355-0284; 1538-2443
• DOI: 10.1007/s13365-016-0501-0

We aimed to explore the brain imaging correlates of vocal emotion processing in a group of HIV+ individuals and to compare the vocal emotion processing of HIV+ individuals with a group of healthy adults. We conducted multiple linear regressions to determine the cerebral correlates of a newly designed vocal emotion processing test in a sub-group of HIV+ individuals who completed the cerebral magnetic resonance scan ( n  = 36). Separately, we test whether the association between our test scores and each cerebral measure persisted regardless of the presence of neurocognitive impairment. We also calculated differences in average test scores between the total HIV+ group ( n  = 100) and a healthy adult group ( n  = 46). We found a positive association between the test scores and several brain area volumes: right frontal, temporal and parietal lobes, bilateral thalamus, and left hippocampus. We found a negative association between inflammatory markers in frontal white matter and the test scores. After controlling by neurocognitive impairment, several brain area volumes remained positively associated to the prosody test scores. Moreover, the whole HIV+ sample had significantly poorer test scores than healthy adults, but only in the subset of HIV+ individuals with neurocognitive impairment. For the first time, our results suggest that cerebral dysfunctions in particular brain areas involved in the processing of emotional auditory stimuli may occur in HIV+ individuals. These results highlight the need for broad characterization of the neuropsychological consequence of HIV brain damages.