44

Huntington’s disease is a neurodegenerative pathology of genetic origin which manifests itself via motor, cognitive, and psychobehavioral symptoms. While the first two types of symptoms have been the subject of many publications, psychobehavioral disorders constitute a more recent field of investigation. This article focuses on these latter symptoms, as well as on their possible links with a social cognition deficit. We studied the links between behavioral dysexecutive syndrome and recognition of basic emotions as well as between behavioral dysexecutive syndrome and theory of mind in two groups of patients with symptomatic Huntington’s disease, using dysexecutive questionnaires completed by the patients and/or their relatives and semi-ecological socio-cognitive tasks. This work, the first of its kind, shows the existence of a severe behavioral dysexecutive syndrome in patients with symptomatic Huntington’s disease and confirms, in these patients, the existence of deficits in social cognition (deficits in recognition of emotions and theory of mind). Finally, our data are very clearly in favor of the idea that social cognition deficits are linked, at least in part, to behavioral disorders associated with the dysexecutive syndrome, making it possible to consider new avenues for patients’ management and support for those around them.