title: Impairment of age estimation from faces in Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: A prerequisite for any function in social cognition is the perception and processing of social cues. Age estimation is a skill that is used in everyday life and is fundamental in social interactions. This study evaluated whether facial age estimation is impaired in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). The current age of faces is known to have an impact on age estimation, and therefore stimuli belonging to different age groups (young, middle-aged, and older adults' faces) were used. As expected, an impairment of age estimation from faces was observed in mild to moderate AD patients. However, the profile of impairment depended on the age of faces and stage of the disease. Mild AD patients presented difficulties mainly in assessing the age of middle-aged adults. In moderate disease stage, these difficulties also affected the age estimation of young adult faces. Interestingly, AD patients remained relatively good at estimating the age of older adults' faces, compared to healthy controls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behavior, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moyse
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Center, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bastin
authors.affiliation: Cyclotron Research Center, University of Liège, Belgium Memory Clinic, CHU Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salmon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology: Cognition and Behavior, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brédart
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
keywords: Age discrimination; Alzheimer's disease; face; social perception