Recognition of disgust is selectively preserved in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

The neural substrates that subserve decoding of different emotional expressions are subject to different rates of degeneration and atrophy in Alzheimer's disease (AD), and there is therefore reason to anticipate that a differentiated profile of affect recognition impairment may emerge. However, it remains unclear whether AD differentially affects the recognition of specific emotions. Further, there is only limited research focused on whether affect recognition deficits in AD generalize to more ecologically valid stimuli. In the present study, relatively mild AD participants (n=24), older controls (n=30) and younger controls (n=30) were administered measures of affect recognition. Significant AD deficits were observed relative to both the younger and older control groups on a measure that involved labeling of static images of facial affect. AD deficits on this measure were observed in relation to all emotions assessed (anger, sadness, happiness, surprise and fear), with the exception of disgust, which was preserved even relative to the younger adult group. The relative preservation of disgust could not be attributed to biases in the choice of labels made, and it is suggested instead that this finding might reflect the relative sparing of the basal ganglia in AD. No significant AD effect was observed for the more ecologically valid measure that involved dynamic displays of facial expressions, in conjunction with paralinguistic and body movement cues, although a trend for greater AD difficulty was observed.

Perception of Biological Motion and Emotion in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

“…Consequently, it is possible that in everyday life the provision of additional contextual support might help disambiguate biological motion cues. Indeed, Henry et al (2008) showed that participants with AD had greater difficulty decoding static expressions of facial affect relative to a more ecologically valid measure that involved dynamic displays of facial expressions, in conjunction with paralinguistic and body movement cues.…”

“…Deficits in facial affect recognition are typically identified in dementia (e.g., Henry et al, 2008;Rosen et al, 2006) and relate to broader aspects of well-being and social behavior (Phillips, Scott, Henry, Mowat, & Bell, 2010). MCI studies have typically yielded more mixed results, but most evidence suggests that basic facial affect recognition is also disrupted in this group (Teng, Lu, & Cummings, 2007;Weiss et al, 2008).…”

An Exploratory Study on Facial Emotion Recognition Capacity in Beginning Alzheimer’s Disease

“…Stimulus identification and recognition of its emotional significance is phylogenetically determined and anchored in specific neurobiological systems including the lateral temporal cortex, median prefrontal and orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, insula, amygdala, basal ganglia, striatum and parietal cortex, among others [1,2,3,4]. Different emotions are likely to be subserved by different neural systems [3,4,5] that are vulnerable to neuropathological changes occurring in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and are probably affected at different times and rates [6,7,8,9]. Thus, facial emotion recognition (FER) might be affected with increasing cognitive impairment in AD patients involving different emotions to different degrees.…”

Facial expression recognition in Alzheimer’s disease: a longitudinal study

“…The few cross-sectional dementia studies that have investigated the ability to recognize facial emotion indicate that compared with age-matched controls, people with very mild dementia have difficulty labeling fearful, angry and happy expressions 6 . Additionally, people with mild to moderate AD have shown problems labeling sadness, surprise and disgust 1 .…”