Moral judgment and decision making in Huntington’s disease

BackgroundIn Huntington’s disease, frontostriatal dysfunction may impact cognitive and emotional processes critical for decision making. We investigated whether patients exhibit impairments in moral judgment and economic decision making, and if deficits were related to executive dysfunction or behavioral problems.MethodsSixteen patients with Huntington’s disease and 16 controls judged the severity of items on a list of potentially immoral behaviors, and completed a version of the ultimatum game. Executive functions and problem behavioral/psychiatric symptoms were also assessed.ResultsAlthough patients exhibited a tendency to rate the severity of immoral behaviors below that of controls, this difference did not reach significance. However, Huntington’s disease was associated with significantly more rejections of offers of money on the ultimatum game, and executive dysfunction. No significant correlations were found between measures.ConclusionHuntington’s disease is associated with deficits in decision making, which could help explain evidence of dysfunctional behavior such as increased risk-taking.