Moral Emotions, Robots, and their Role in Managing Stigma in Early Stage Parkinson’s Disease Caregiving

Abstract

Early stage Parkinson’s disease is characterized
\nby facial masking that reduces the ability for a caregiver to effectively comprehend the emotional state of a patient. We are
\nstudying the introduction of a robotic co-mediator to increase the communicative bandwidth in this relationship for fostering empathic response in the caregiver. This requires modeling
\nmoral emotions in the patient, the patient, such as shame and
\nembarrassment, while looking for lack of congruence in the
\ncaregiver regarding the perception of the emotional state of the
\npatient. Having the robot exhibit suitable kinesic behavior in response is intended to drive the relationship towards
\nacceptable social and medical treatment norms.