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Impaired Recognition of Facial and Vocal Emotions in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2021

Helena S. Moreira
Affiliation:
Center for Psychology at the University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 4200-135, Porto, Portugal
Ana Sofia Costa
Affiliation:
Neurocognition Unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital de Braga, Rua das Comunidades Lusíadas 133, Braga, Portugal Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany JARA BRAIN Institute Molecular Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Álvaro Machado
Affiliation:
Neurocognition Unit, Department of Neurology, Hospital de Braga, Rua das Comunidades Lusíadas 133, Braga, Portugal
São Luís Castro
Affiliation:
Center for Psychology at the University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 4200-135, Porto, Portugal
Selene G. Vicente*
Affiliation:
Center for Psychology at the University of Porto, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Alfredo Allen 4200-135, Porto, Portugal
César F. Lima*
Affiliation:
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Av. das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: C. F. Lima, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Avenida das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: cesar.lima@iscte-iul.pt or S. Vicente, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto (FPCE-UP), Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: svicente@fpce.up.pt
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: C. F. Lima, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Avenida das Forças Armadas, 1649-026 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: cesar.lima@iscte-iul.pt or S. Vicente, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto (FPCE-UP), Rua Alfredo Allen, 4200-135 Porto, Portugal. E-mail: svicente@fpce.up.pt

Abstract

Objective:

The ability to recognize others’ emotions is a central aspect of socioemotional functioning. Emotion recognition impairments are well documented in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, but it is less understood whether they are also present in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Results on facial emotion recognition are mixed, and crucially, it remains unclear whether the potential impairments are specific to faces or extend across sensory modalities,

Method:

In the current study, 32 MCI patients and 33 cognitively intact controls completed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and two forced-choice emotion recognition tasks, including visual and auditory stimuli. The emotion recognition tasks required participants to categorize emotions in facial expressions and in nonverbal vocalizations (e.g., laughter, crying) expressing neutrality, anger, disgust, fear, happiness, pleasure, surprise, or sadness.

Results:

MCI patients performed worse than controls for both facial expressions and vocalizations. The effect was large, similar across tasks and individual emotions, and it was not explained by sensory losses or affective symptomatology. Emotion recognition impairments were more pronounced among patients with lower global cognitive performance, but they did not correlate with the ability to perform activities of daily living.

Conclusions:

These findings indicate that MCI is associated with emotion recognition difficulties and that such difficulties extend beyond vision, plausibly reflecting a failure at supramodal levels of emotional processing. This highlights the importance of considering emotion recognition abilities as part of standard neuropsychological testing in MCI, and as a target of interventions aimed at improving social cognition in these patients.

Information

Type
Regular Research
Copyright
Copyright © INS. Published by Cambridge University Press, 2021

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