Deficits of facial emotion recognition and visual information processing in adult patients with classical galactosemia

Mirjam Korner,
Sonja Kälin,
Antoinette Zweifel-Zehnder,
Niklaus Fankhauser,
Jean-Marc Nuoffer and
Matthias GautschiEmail author View ORCID ID profile

Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases201914:56

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13023-019-0999-3

Received: 2 November 2018
Accepted: 8 January 2019
Published: 26 February 2019

Abstract

Background

Classical galactosemia (CG) is due to a severe deficiency of the galactose-1-phosphate uridyl-transferase (GALT), the main enzyme of galactose metabolism. Even early introduction of galactose-restricted diet fails to prevent long-term complications, including cognitive impairment, neurological and psychiatric problems, osteoporosis, premature ovarian failure and infertility. Detailed neuropsychological phenotyping is needed in order to better understand the relevant neurodevelopmental deficiencies and to develop effective treatment strategies.

Aim

To define specifically and significantly impaired neuropsychological traits in adult CG patients of the Swiss cohort.

Methods

Prospective cohort study. 22 CG patients, with confirmed genotype and low GALT activity, and 15 controls completed a computer-based neuropsychological test battery (CANTAB). Additionally, broad IQ evaluation was made for the CG patients.

Results

In most outcome measures of the CANTAB tasks, CG patients performed significantly worse than controls. The deficits in CG patients were most prominent in tasks that involve rapid visual information processing and facial emotion recognition.

Conclusion

CG patients have specific cognitive problems such as impaired visual information processing and facial emotion recognition. The deficits in facial emotion recognition have not been described before and could help explain difficulties in social interactions often experienced by patients with CG.