Facial Affect Recognition in CADASIL Patients

Abstract

We explored the capacity of Cerebral Autosomal-Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) patients to recognize facial expressions. Twenty-three consecutive CADASIL patients and 23 age-matched, gender-matched, and education-matched controls were assessed with a semi-structured psychiatric interview, cognitive tests, and the Ekman and Friesen test. Cases and controls (5 males, 18 females) had a mean age (+SD) of 52.4 + 15.7 and 54.0 + 15.3 years, respectively, and a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) mean score of 27.8 + 2.2 and 28.9 + 1.3 (p < .05). Eighteen out of the 23 (78.3%) CADASIL patients and 10 (43.5%) controls were diagnosed as affected by major depression according to DSM-IV criteria (p < .05). The CADASIL patients had an impaired ability of emotion recognition in comparison with controls, particularly for fear expression. This effect was not mediated by depression, cognitive impairment, and MMSE score. Facial affect recognition is reduced in the CADASIL patients and this impairment might represent an early manifestation of the disease.

Impairments in Episodic-Autobiographical Memory and Emotional and Social Information Processing in CADASIL during Mid-Adulthood

“…Both on Florida (Tübingen) Affect Battery subtests and “Augen-ToM-Test” SP encountered significant problems with the emotion of fear. Impairments in recognizing facial emotions (especially fear) have recently been reported in a group of patients with CADASIL by Valenti et al (2013). In contrast to our patient, who showed no indication of depressive symptomatology, a substantial number of patients in the study of Valenti et al (2013) endorsed depressive symptoms.…”

“…Others argued that “in comparison with AD patients, those with a diagnosis of vascular dementia display a relative preservation of episodic memory” (Peters et al, 2005, p. 2078). One study reported impairments in facial affect recognition in patients with CADASIL (Valenti et al, 2013). Their sample of patients had a higher rate of co-morbid depressive symptoms, which may have confounded the findings.…”

The clinical profile of cerebral small vessel disease: Toward an evidence‐based identification of cognitive markers

“…Twenty‐five studies compared cSVD and healthy controls performances at targeted tests (16 sporadic cSVD and 9 CADASIL). 18 , 19 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 Among these studies, 20 compared performances at MMSE; 9 at MoCA; 13 at TMT‐A; 14 at TMT‐B; 8 at Stroop test; 5 at Boston Naming Test; 8 and 4 at phonemic and semantic fluency, respectively (Table 1 and Figure 3 ).…”