Facial Emotion Recognition Deficit in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease

Social cognition and executive functions in children and adolescents with focal epilepsy.

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between genetic risk for schizophrenia and facial emotion recognition

Altered emotional processing, including reduced emotion facial expression and defective emotion recognition, has been reported in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). However, few studies have objectively investigated facial expression abnormalities in PD using neurophysiological techniques. It is not known whether altered facial expression and recognition in PD are related. To investigate possible deficits in facial emotion expression and emotion recognition and their relationship, if any, in patients with PD. Eighteen patients with PD and 16 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Facial expressions of emotion were recorded using a 3D optoelectronic system and analyzed using the facial action coding system. Possible deficits in emotion recognition were assessed using the Ekman test. Participants were assessed in one experimental session. Possible relationship between the kinematic variables of facial emotion expression, the Ekman test scores, and clinical and demographic data in patients were evaluated using the Spearman's test and multiple regression analysis. The facial expression of all six basic emotions had slower velocity and lower amplitude in patients in comparison to healthy controls (all Ps < 0.05). Patients also yielded worse Ekman global score and disgust, sadness, and fear sub-scores than healthy controls (all Ps < 0.001). Altered facial expression kinematics and emotion recognition deficits were unrelated in patients (all Ps > 0.05). Finally, no relationship emerged between kinematic variables of facial emotion expression, the Ekman test scores, and clinical and demographic data in patients (all Ps > 0.05). The results in this study provide further evidence of altered emotional processing in PD. The lack of any correlation between altered facial emotion expression kinematics and emotion recognition deficits in patients suggests that these abnormalities are mediated by separate pathophysiological mechanisms.

Introduction: The study of facial emotion recognition is under-explored in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We investigated whether deficits in facial emotion recognition are present in patients with MCI. We also analyzed the relationship between facial emotion recognition and different domains of cognitive function. Methods: This study included 300 participants aged 60 years or older with cognitive decline. We evaluated 181 MCI and 119 non-MCI subjects using the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-Core (SNSB-C) and facial emotion recognition task using six facial expressions (anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise). A Generalized Linear Model (GLM) was used to assess the association between cognitive performance and accuracy of facial emotion recognition and to compare facial emotion recognition in the MCI group based on the impairment of five different domains of cognitive function. The model was adjusted for age, sex, years of education, and depressive symptoms. Results: Patients with MCI had a lower score for accurately recognizing total facial emotion (0.48 vs. 0.53; ρ = 0.0003) and surprise (0.73 vs. 0.81; ρ = 0.0215) when compared to cognitively healthy subjects. We also discovered that frontal/executive function domain (Digit Symbol Coding [DSC, 0.38 vs. 0.49; p < 0.0001], Controlled Oral Word Association Test [COWAT, 0.42 vs. 0.49; p = 0.0001], Korean-Trail Making Test [K-TMT, 0.37 vs. 0.48; p = 0.0073], Korean-Color Word Stroop Test [K-CWST, 0.43 vs. 0.49; p = 0.0219]) and language domain (Korean-Boston Naming Test [S-K-BNT, 0.46 vs. 0.47; p = 0.003]) were statistically associated with the deficits of facial emotion recognition in patients with MCI. Conclusion: We observed a significant association between deficits in facial emotion recognition and cognitive impairment in elderly individuals.

The Facial Feedback Hypothesis (FFH) states that facial emotion recognition is based on the imitation of facial emotional expressions and the processing of physiological feedback. In the light of limited and contradictory evidence, this hypothesis is still being debated. Therefore, in the present study, emotion recognition was tested in patients with central facial paresis after stroke. Performance in facial vs. auditory emotion recognition was assessed in patients with vs. without facial paresis. The accuracy of objective facial emotion recognition was significantly lower in patients with vs. without facial paresis and also in comparison to healthy controls. Moreover, for patients with facial paresis, the accuracy measure for facial emotion recognition was significantly worse than that for auditory emotion recognition. Finally, in patients with facial paresis, the subjective judgements of their own facial emotion recognition abilities differed strongly from their objective performances. This pattern of results demonstrates a specific deficit in facial emotion recognition in central facial paresis and thus provides support for the FFH and points out certain effects of stroke.

Disgust in pre-clinical Huntington's disease: A longitudinal study

Recognition of emotional facial expressions in adolescents with anorexia nervosa and adolescents with major depression

Deficits in facial emotion recognition in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients has been well documented. Nevertheless, it is still not clear whether facial emotion recognition deficits are secondary to other cognitive impairments. The aim of this study was to answer the question of whether deficits in facial emotion recognition in PD result from impaired sensory processes, or from impaired decision processes. To address this question, we tested the ability to recognize a mixture of basic and complex emotions in 38 non-demented PD patients and 38 healthy controls matched on demographic characteristics. By using a task with an increased level of ambiguity, in conjunction with the signal detection theory, we were able to differentiate between sensitivity and response bias in facial emotion recognition. Sensitivity and response bias for facial emotion recognition were calculated using a d-prime value and a c index respectively. Our study is the first to employ the EIS-F scale for assessing facial emotion recognition among PD patients; to test its validity as an assessment tool, a group comprising schizophrenia patients and healthy controls were also tested. Patients with PD recognized emotions with less accuracy than healthy individuals (d-prime) and used a more liberal response criterion (c index). By contrast, patients with schizophrenia merely showed diminished sensitivity (d-prime). Our results suggest that an impaired ability to recognize facial emotions in PD patients may result from both decreased sensitivity and a significantly more liberal response criteria, whereas facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia may stem from a generalized sensory impairment only.

Background It is inconclusive whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience a deficit in facial emotion recognition. The dopaminergic pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of ASD. This study was aimed at determining facial emotion recognition and its correlation with polymorphisms in the dopaminergic pathway genes in children with ASD. Methods Facial emotion recognition was examined in 98 children with ASD and 60 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The severity of ASD was evaluated using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). DNA from blood cells was used to analyze the genotypes of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in dopaminergic pathway genes. SNPs of DBH rs1611115, DDC rs6592961, DRD1 rs251937, DRD2 rs4630328, and DRD3 rs167771 were analyzed. Results Children with ASD took a significantly longer time to recognize all facial emotions, and their interpretations were less accurate for anger at low intensity and fear at both low and high intensities. The severity of the disease was associated with significant delays in recognition of all facial emotions and with a decrease in accuracy in recognition of happiness and anger at low intensity. Accuracy in recognizing fear at high intensity and sadness at low intensity was associated with rs251937 and rs4630328, respectively, in children with ASD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that SNP rs167771, response time for the recognition of happiness, sadness and fear, and accuracy in recognition of anger and fear were all associated with the risk of childhood ASD. Conclusions Children with ASD experience a deficit in facial emotion recognition. Certain SNPs in the dopaminergic pathway genes are associated with accuracy in recognizing selective facial emotions in children with ASD.

A large body of evidence suggests that several aspects of face processing are impaired in autism and that this impairment might be hereditary. This study was aimed at assessing facial emotion recognition in parents of children with autism and its associations with a functional polymorphism of the serotonin transporter (5HTTLPR). We evaluated 40 parents of children with autism and 41 healthy controls. All participants were administered the Penn Emotion Recognition Test (ER40) and were genotyped for 5HTTLPR. Our study showed that parents of children with autism performed worse in the facial emotion recognition test than controls. Analyses of error patterns showed that parents of children with autism over-attributed neutral to emotional faces. We found evidence that 5HTTLPR polymorphism did not influence the performance in the Penn Emotion Recognition Test, but that it may determine different error patterns. Facial emotion recognition deficits are more common in first-degree relatives of autistic patients than in the general population, suggesting that facial emotion recognition is a candidate endophenotype for autism.

Do patients from the Democratic Republic of Congo with schizophrenia have facial emotion recognition deficits?

Facial emotion recognition in Chinese with schizophrenia at early and chronic stages of illness

Are there differential deficits in facial emotion recognition between paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia? A signal detection analysis

Temporal lobe abnormalities and emotion recognition deficits are prominent features of schizophrenia and appear related to the diathesis of the disorder. This study investigated whether temporal lobe structural abnormalities were associated with facial emotion recognition deficits in schizophrenia and related to genetic liability for the disorder. Twenty-seven schizophrenia patients, 23 biological family members, and 36 controls participated. Several temporal lobe regions (fusiform, superior temporal, middle temporal, amygdala, and hippocampus) previously associated with face recognition in normative samples and found to be abnormal in schizophrenia were evaluated using volumetric analyses. Participants completed a facial emotion recognition task and an age recognition control task under time-limited and self-paced conditions. Temporal lobe volumes were tested for associations with task performance. Group status explained 23% of the variance in temporal lobe volume. Left fusiform gray matter volume was decreased by 11% in patients and 7% in relatives compared with controls. Schizophrenia patients additionally exhibited smaller hippocampal and middle temporal volumes. Patients were unable to improve facial emotion recognition performance with unlimited time to make a judgment but were able to improve age recognition performance. Patients additionally showed a relationship between reduced temporal lobe gray matter and poor facial emotion recognition. For the middle temporal lobe region, the relationship between greater volume and better task performance was specific to facial emotion recognition and not age recognition. Because schizophrenia patients exhibited a specific deficit in emotion recognition not attributable to a generalized impairment in face perception, impaired emotion recognition may serve as a target for interventions.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of disability, specifically among younger adults. Behavioral changes are common after moderate to severe TBI and have adverse consequences for social and vocational functioning. It is hypothesized that deficits in social cognition, including facial affect recognition, might underlie these behavioral changes. Measurement of behavioral deficits is complicated, because the rating scales used rely on subjective judgement, often lack specificity and many patients provide unrealistically positive reports of their functioning due to impaired self-awareness. Accordingly, it is important to find performance based tests that allow objective and early identification of these problems. In the present study 51 moderate to severe TBI patients in the sub-acute and chronic stage were assessed with a test for emotion recognition (FEEST) and a questionnaire for behavioral problems (DEX) with a self and proxy rated version. Patients performed worse on the total score and on the negative emotion subscores of the FEEST than a matched group of 31 healthy controls. Patients also exhibited significantly more behavioral problems on both the DEX self and proxy rated version, but proxy ratings revealed more severe problems. No significant correlation was found between FEEST scores and DEX self ratings. However, impaired emotion recognition in the patients, and in particular of Sadness and Anger, was significantly correlated with behavioral problems as rated by proxies and with impaired self-awareness. This is the first study to find these associations, strengthening the proposed recognition of social signals as a condition for adequate social functioning. Hence, deficits in emotion recognition can be conceived as markers for behavioral problems and lack of insight in TBI patients. This finding is also of clinical importance since, unlike behavioral problems, emotion recognition can be objectively measured early after injury, allowing for early detection and treatment of these problems.