Implicit Biological Motion Processing: a Link between Spatial Attention and Social Cognition in Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Biological Motion (BM) perception plays a fundamental role in regulating social interactions with others. Essential aspects of BM can be extracted from a few light points which follow the movement of a human like figure (Point Light Walker Display, PLWD). Moreover, BM cues can induce an orienting of attentional response, following both from global cues involving the entire body and from local cue specific to the feet region. It has been suggested that patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) exhibit cognitive deficits also involving visuospatial attention processes as assessed by Posner paradigm-based tasks. In addition, MS neuroinflammatory processes mediated by the immune system has been traced back to an impaired social cognition. Aim: The present study is aimed to investigate, in MS patients, BM processing in the cognitive domain of visuospatial attention and within the broader domain of social cognition. Methods: In 24 MS patients and 15 matched healthy controls, we used a PLWD with global (the entire series of dots) or local configuration (two dots indicating the feet) as cue in a Posner-like task, where people had to respond to a yellow square, to investigate spatial attention orienting processes as expressed by different reaction times in response to the target stimulus which could appear or not in the spatially cued location. Preliminary results: Compared to healthy controls, MS patients exhibit a different pattern of behavioural response. Such a different performance may be associated with lower social cognition abilities, that could be explained by impairment in the processing of BM cues.