Abstract
Deficits in facial emotion processing are features of mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). These impairments are often dis-tressing for carers as well as patients. Such non-cognitive symptoms are often cited as a contributing reason for admis-sion into institutionalised care. The ability to interpret emotional cues is crucial to healthy psychological function and relationships and impaired emotional facility may lead to antisocial behavior. Understanding the origins of the non-cognitive aspects of AD may lead to an improvement in the management of sufferers and ease the carer burden. In a cross-sectional study we recorded patients’ facial processing abilities, (emotion and identity recognition) and disease severity (ADAS-cog, Neuropsychiatic Inventory) and investigated the regional cerebral blood flow correlates of facial emotion processing deficits using 99Tcm HMAPO rCBF SPECT. Using statistical parametric mapping (SPM) we iden-tified decreased blood flow in posterior frontal regions specifically associated with emotion perception deficits. Non-emotional facial processing abilities or disease severity. The posterior frontal lobe has been identified in previous stud-ies in the absence of dementia as being important in emotion processing. The results suggest that the cognitive disease severity, in combination with the facial processing ability, do not completely explain facial emotion processing in AD patients and that the posterior frontal lobe mediates such behaviour.
Highlights
Impaired ability to understand the emotions of others has often been reported in fronto-temporal dementia [1], but there is evidence that the ability to recognize and interpret emotional signals is impaired in other dementing conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [2]
The results suggest that the cognitive disease severity, in combination with the facial processing ability, do not completely explain facial emotion processing in AD patients and that the posterior frontal lobe mediates such behaviour
The main finding was that in AD patients there is a significant association between regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and facial emotion and non-emotion processing abilities
Summary
Impaired ability to understand the emotions of others has often been reported in fronto-temporal dementia [1], but there is evidence that the ability to recognize and interpret emotional signals is impaired in other dementing conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) [2]. These impairments are often distressing for carers and patients. The origin and nature of such emotional impairments in AD is unclear Understanding such deficits may lead to an improvement in management and ease the burden on patients and carers
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