Face-specific memory deficits and changes in eye scanning patterns among patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment

Toshikazu Kawagoe,Mamoru Hashimoto,Masateru Matsushita,Manabu Ikeda,Kaoru Sekiyama

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14585-5

Toshikazu Kawagoe, Mamoru Hashimoto + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14585-5

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Abstract

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a prodromal stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Previous studies have shown functional and structural degradation of the fusiform face area, which is a core region for face processing, in addition to medial temporal lobe degradation. We predicted that patients with aMCI exhibit a loss of face processing and/or face memory, accompanied by abnormal eye scanning patterns, since patients who have deficits in face perception (i.e. prosopagnosia) exhibit such tendencies. Eighteen patients with aMCI and age-matched healthy controls were tested for perception and short-term memory of visually presented faces and houses while their gaze was recorded. Patients with aMCI showed a decline in memory, compared with control observers, for faces, but not for houses. Patients looked more at the mouth of faces, compared with control observers. We demonstrate here the loss of short-term face memory in aMCI with abnormal scanning patterns that might reflect the cerebral abnormality found in patients with aMCI.

Highlights

Individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment show cognitive impairment, especially in memory, beyond that expected for their age[1,2,3]
The diagnostic criteria laid out by the National Institute for Aging-Alzheimer Association[34] were applied in this study, which included: (1) Neuropsychological tests and psychological assessments including the MiniMental State Examination (MMSE)[35], the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised logical memory (WMS-LM), and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)[36], (2) assessments of activities of daily living, using the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale and the Physical Self-Maintenance Scale (PSMS)[37]; (3) structural neuroimaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT), functional neuroimaging with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT); and (4) routine laboratory tests including a complete blood count and metabolic panel, as well as estimation of serum B12, folate, thyroid-stimulating hormone levels, and rapid plasma regain tests
We conducted a three-way ANOVA, because we aimed to clarify the specific deterioration of face-memory performance in patients with Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), which could be demonstrated through a three-way interaction

Summary

Introduction

Individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) show cognitive impairment, especially in memory, beyond that expected for their age[1,2,3]. This specific region for face processing is called the fusiform face area (FFA) If this area is vulnerable to pathological changes in MCI as Whitwell, et al.[10] suggested, it is reasonable to expect that the face processing system would be impaired in patients with aMCI. To the best of our knowledge, studies related to face memory in patients such as those with aMCI investigated either face-name associations or facial expression recognition[13,20,21] The former would be affected by the general impairment of memory binding in short-term memory observed in patients with AD12,22. Et al.[11] and Seelye, et al.[19] studied face memory in aMCI, but used a protocol in which participants watch and encode 24 different faces in a single block that tended to cause confusion and resulted in, for example, intrusion errors. Would the face short-term memory be a sensitive index as a diagnostic marker of aMCI?

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