title: Facial emotion recognition deficit in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A deficit in facial emotion recognition was described in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD). However, this issue has been underexplored in subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI). Thus, the authors aimed to determine whether a deficit in facial emotion recognition is present in a-MCI phase and whether this is intensity dependent. A secondary aim was to investigate relationships between facial emotion recognition and cognitive performances.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case-control study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Memory clinic.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty a-MCI patients, 50 mild AD patients, and 50 comparison subjects (COM) were enrolled.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information about facial emotion recognition was obtained from Penn Emotion Recognition Test. The Mental Deterioration Battery was used to measure cognitive impairment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mild AD patients were more impaired in the recognition of almost all emotional stimuli of all intensities than a-MCI and COM subjects. However, there was an increased progression only in low-intensity facial emotion recognition deficit from COM to a-MCI to mild AD patients. In particular, a-MCI subjects differed significantly from COM in low-intensity fearful face recognition performance. This deficit in a-MCI patients was explained by the short-term verbal memory impairment, whereas the same deficit in mild AD patients was explained by the long-term verbal memory impairment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Emotion recognition progresses from a deficit in low-intensity fearful facial recognition in a-MCI phase to a deficit in all intensities and emotions in mild AD. This could be an effect of the progressive degeneration of brain structures modulating emotional processing. An early detection of emotional impairment in MCI phases of dementia may have clinical implications.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Spoletini
authors.forename: Camillo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marra
authors.forename: Fulvia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Iulio
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gianni
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sancesario
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Giubilei
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trequattrini
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bria
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Caltagirone
authors.forename: Gianfranco
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Spalletta
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003071:Cognition; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004522:Educational Status; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D020238:Prosopagnosia / Q000209:etiology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013060:Speech