Impaired Recognition of Facial and Vocal Emotions in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Author(s):  
Helena S. Moreira ◽  
Ana Sofia Costa ◽  
Álvaro Machado ◽  
São Luís Castro ◽  
Selene G. Vicente ◽  
...  

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.

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 733-738
Author(s):  
Margaret Abraham ◽  
Michael Seidenberg ◽  
Dana A. Kelly ◽  
Kristy A. Nielson ◽  
John L. Woodard ◽  
...  

AbstractObjective:The Apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4 allele increases the risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia, but not all carriers develop MCI/dementia. The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine if early and subtle preclinical signs of cognitive dysfunction and medial temporal lobe atrophy are observed in cognitively intact ε4 carriers who subsequently develop MCI.Methods:Twenty-nine healthy, cognitively intact ε4 carriers (ε3/ε4 heterozygotes; ages 65–85) underwent neuropsychological testing and MRI-based measurements of medial temporal volumes over a 5-year follow-up interval; data were converted to z-scores based on a non-carrier group consisting of 17 ε3/ε3 homozygotes.Results:At follow-up, 11 ε4 carriers (38%) converted to a diagnosis of MCI. At study entry, the MCI converters had significantly lower scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination, Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) Trials 1–5, and RAVLT Immediate Recall compared to non-converters. MCI converters also had smaller MRI volumes in the left subiculum than non-converters. Follow-up logistic regressions revealed that left subiculum volumes and RAVLT Trials 1–5 scores were significant predictors of MCI conversion.Conclusions:Results from this exploratory study suggest that ε4 carriers who convert to MCI exhibit subtle cognitive and volumetric differences years prior to diagnosis.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fábio Henrique De Gobbi Porto ◽  
Lívia Spíndola ◽  
Maira Okada De Oliveira ◽  
Patrícia Helena Figuerêdo Do Vale ◽  
Marco Orsini ◽  
...  

It is not easy to differentiate patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from subjective memory complainers (SMC). Assessments with screening cognitive tools are essential, particularly in primary care where most patients are seen. The objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of screening cognitive tests and to propose a score derived from screening tests. Elderly subjects with memory complaints were evaluated using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Brief Cognitive Battery (BCB). We added two delayed recalls in the MMSE (a delayed recall and a late-delayed recall, LDR), and also a phonemic fluency test of letter P fluency (LPF). A score was created based on these tests. The diagnoses were made on the basis of clinical consensus and neuropsychological testing. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were used to determine area under the curve (AUC), the sensitivity and specificity for each test separately and for the final proposed score. MMSE, LDR, LPF and delayed recall of BCB scores reach statistically significant differences between groups (P=0.000, 0.03, 0.001 and 0.01, respectively). Sensitivity, specificity and AUC were MMSE: 64%, 79% and 0.75 (cut off <29); LDR: 56%, 62% and 0.62 (cut off <3); LPF: 71%, 71% and 0.71 (cut off <14); delayed recall of BCB: 56%, 82% and 0.68 (cut off <9). The proposed score reached a sensitivity of 88% and 76% and specificity of 62% and 75% for cut off over 1 and over 2, respectively. AUC were 0.81. In conclusion, a score created from screening tests is capable of discriminating MCI from SMC with moderate to good accurancy.


Author(s):  
Zahra Ayati ◽  
Guoyan Yang ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Ayati ◽  
Seyed Ahmad Emami ◽  
Dennis Chang

Abstract Background Saffron (stigma of Crocus sativus L.) from Iridaceae family is a well-known traditional herbal medicine that has been used for hundreds of years to treat several diseases such as depressive mood, cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Recently, anti-dementia property of saffron has been indicated. However, the effects of saffron for the management of dementia remain controversial. The aim of the present study is to explore the effectiveness and safety of saffron in treating mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Methods An electronic database search of some major English and Chinese databases was conducted until 31st May 2019 to identify relevant randomised clinical trials (RCT). The primary outcome was cognitive function and the secondary outcomes included daily living function, global clinical assessment, quality of life (QoL), psychiatric assessment and safety. Rev-Man 5.3 software was applied to perform the meta-analyses. Results A total of four RCTs were included in this review. The analysis revealed that saffron significantly improves cognitive function measured by the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-cog) and Clinical Dementia Rating Scale-Sums of Boxes (CDR-SB), compared to placebo groups. In addition, there was no significant difference between saffron and conventional medicine, as measured by cognitive scales such as ADAS-cog and CDR-SB. Saffron improved daily living function, but the changes were not statistically significant. No serious adverse events were reported in the included studies. Conclusions Saffron may have the potential to improve cognitive function and activities of daily living in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, due to limited high-quality studies there is insufficient evidence to make any recommendations for clinical use. Further clinical trials on larger sample sizes are warranted to shed more light on its efficacy and safety.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Iza Gomes da Penha Sobral ◽  
Cláudia Marina Tavares de Araújo ◽  
Marcos Felipe Falcão Sobral

Abstract Mild Cognitive Impairment is characterized as an intermediate form between age-related change and dementia. For the elderly, autonomy and independence are related to the ability to remain active in conducting their social activities and, for this to occur, communication is fundamental in this process. Objective: To assess the association between communication and the abilities of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment to perform instrumental activities of daily living. Methods: A cross-sectional, quantitative, analytical, correlational study was conducted at the Open University of the Third Age (UnATI), a program of the Federal University of Pernambuco. This study included 92 people, comprising 46 elderly with mild cognitive impairment and a caregiver or family member who met the inclusion criteria. The elderly were asked to complete a sociodemographic questionnaire and Lawton-Brody’s Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale. The caregivers were asked to complete the Functional Assessment of Communication Skills. The following variables were studied: social communication skills and instrumental activities of daily living. Data were stored in an Excel® 2007 spreadsheet, and the Pearson correlation test was used for the statistical analysis. Results: There were statistically significant correlations in four domains of social communication: referring to family members by name (p=0.0033); requesting information about people or events (p=0.0355); understanding conversations in a noisy environment (p=0.0448); and understanding what they watch on television or listen to on the radio (p=0.0127). Conclusion: Changes in the communication of elderly people with mild cognitive impairment interfere with their ability to perform instrumental activities autonomously and independently.


2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna McCade ◽  
Greg Savage ◽  
Sharon L. Naismith

2003 ◽  
Vol 182 (5) ◽  
pp. 449-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Busse ◽  
Jeannette Bischkopf ◽  
Steffi G. Riedel-Heller ◽  
Matthias C. Angermeyer

BackgroundAlthough mild cognitive impairment is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia, there has been little work on its incidence and prevalence.AimsTo report age-specific prevalence, incidence and predictive validities for four diagnostic concepts of mild cognitive impairment.MethodA community sample of 1045 dementia-free individuals aged 75 years and over was examined by neuropsychological testing in a three-wave longitudinal study.ResultsPrevalence rates ranged from 3% to 20%, depending on the concept applied. The annual incidence rates applying different case definitions varied from 8 to 77 per 1000 person-years. Rates of conversion to dementia over 2.6 years ranged from 23% to 47%.ConclusionsMild cognitive impairment is frequent in older people. Prevalence, incidence and predictive validities are highly dependent on the diagnostic criteria applied.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-310
Author(s):  
Sujin Eom ◽  
Ju-Young Ha

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting reversion to normal cognition and progression to dementia from mild cognitive impairment (MCI) after 2 years.Methods: We analyzed data from the 6th and 7th “Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA)”. A total of 773 participants aged 65 years and above classified as having MCI according to the Korean Mini-Mental State Examination in the 6th survey were included in the study. Data were analyzed by SPSS 26.0 software using x2 test, t-test, Mann-Whitney test and logistic regression analysis.Results: Of all the participants, 30.5% reverted to normal cognition, 48.5% remained with MCI, and 21.0% progressed to dementia. Factors such as young age (odds ratio [OR]=0.96, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.94~0.99), the absence of diabetes (OR=1.49, 95% CI: 1.01~2.19), and frequent neighbor networks “at least once or twice a month” (OR=2.35, 95% CI: 1.26~4.37), and “at least once a week” (OR=1.63, 95% CI: 1.03~2.56) compared to “never or less than 6 times a year” significantly associated with reversion to normal cognition. Meanwhile, factors such as old age (OR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.05~1.12), low level of perceived socioeconomic status (reference. above middle) (OR=1.59, 95% CI: 1.05~2.41), low levels of instrumental activities of daily living (OR=1.17, 95% CI: 1.05~1.32), and a small number of social activities (OR=0.70, 95% CI: 0.51~0.96) significantly associated with dementia progression.Conclusion: The study indicates the necessity of follow-up research for developing interventions that could aid individuals in reverting to normal cognitive function by managing diabetes or encouraging interaction with neighbors and preventing the progression to dementia by improving Instrumental Activities of Daily Living levels or encouraging participation in social activities.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document