Funcionamiento ejecutivo y reconocimiento facial de emociones en personas con y sin diagnóstico de demencia tipo Alzheimer

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to establish the relationship between emotional recognition in faces and the tasks of executive functions in people with and without diagnosis of Alzheimer’s type dementia, stage GDS 4, in a hospital center in the city of Bogota. We performed a comparative study of cross-correlational involving 80 people, 40 of which are part of the clinical group and 40 of the nonclinical group. A brief interview and Minimental State Examination tests, Wisconsin Card Classification Test, Trail Making Test, reverse-order digit sub-test and similarities of the WAIS-IV, FAS Test, Face Test, Tower of London and Test of Stroop, in order to address aspects of executive functioning of the frontal lobe and emotional recognition in faces. In the results there are differences between groups at a general level, however, the data mark statistical significance among the groups, particularly for phonological and semantic verbal fluency, alternating attention and perseverative behavior despite feedback from the error. Also, a non-significant decrease was found by people with dementia in the ability to recognize emotions in faces. As conclusions it is possible to emphasize that the recognition of emotional expressions in faces would be an innate and basic process in the social functionality of the individual. In addition, there is no evidence of a relationship between the performance of the executive functioning of the frontal lobe and the results in recognition of emotional expressions within a normal aging process and a demential picture, at least in the initial stages.Keywords: Aging, Dementia, Executive function, Emotional recognition of faces.