Towards an understanding of neural responses to emotion in recent onset and chronic psoriasis: a feasibility brain imaging study

Psoriasis is linked to significant stigmatization. Prior research suggests that people with psoriasis demonstrate altered neurobiological responses to disgust. However, chronically affected patients may develop coping mechanisms to disgust-related social cues. We investigated whether duration of psoriasis is associated with more attenuated responses to disgust. We used brain functional magnetic resonance imaging while conducting a covert facial recognition task and a task involving emotional-stimulating pictures in patients with chronic psoriasis (CD), patients with recent onset psoriasis (ROD) and controls without skin disease. We found no differences in disgust processing between patients and healthy controls. Shorter duration of psoriasis was marginally associated with an attenuated brain response to disgust in the left fusiform gyrus within the inferior temporal cortex. An inverse relationship was observed between the age of onset and the hippocampus response when comparing the CD and ROD patient groups. Our findings suggest that both the duration and the age of psoriasis onset may modulate disgust processing in patients, possibly reflecting evolved learned strategies and disease coping mechanisms. Timely pharmacological and psychosocial interventions for psoriasis may be beneficial for people diagnosed during life stages that may increase vulnerability to neurocognitive changes. Further studies are needed to replicate these results.