Discrimination and categorization of emotional facial expressions and faces in Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Our objective was to compare the ability to discriminate and categorize emotional facial expressions (EFEs) and facial identity characteristics (age and/or gender) in a group of 53 individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and another group of 53 healthy subjects. On the one hand, by means of discrimination and identification tasks, we compared two stages in the visual recognition process that could be selectively affected in individuals with PD. On the other hand, facial expression versus gender and age comparison permits us to contrast whether the emotional or non-emotional content influences the configural perception of faces. In Experiment I, we did not find differences between groups, either with facial expression or age, in discrimination tasks. Conversely, in Experiment II, we found differences between the groups, but only in the EFE identification task. Taken together, our results indicate that configural perception of faces does not seem to be globally impaired in PD. However, this ability is selectively altered when the categorization of emotional faces is required. A deeper assessment of the PD group indicated that decline in facial expression categorization is more evident in a subgroup of patients with higher global impairment (motor and cognitive). Taken together, these results suggest that the problems found in facial expression recognition may be associated with the progressive neuronal loss in frontostriatal and mesolimbic circuits, which characterizes PD.

Facial emotion recognition in Parkinson's disease: A review and new hypotheses

“…Indeed, about 30% of the reviewed studies did not examine its effect on the recognition of specific emotions but calculated an overall score encompassing all the displayed emotions 4, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29. Moreover, authors did not manipulate the same set of stimuli, and some only used a small subset 23, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35.…”

“…[58][59][60][61][62][63] Thus, it is not suprising that a specific FER deficit for negative emotions emerges, whereas happiness recognition elicits higher accuracy scores. 35,47,48,[64][65][66][67][68] One solution to avoid this biais would be to combine different task types within the same study [15][16][17]23,24,28,36,37,56,69 or use more refined assessment methods. 22,70 Alternatively, FER could be assessed in more detail using rating tasks in which participants assess emotions and quantify their intensity.…”

“…Although an FER deficit has been highlighted in the early stages of the disease, 21,32,66,69,70,75 it was greater in the most severely affected patients. 15,28,29,36,38,68,76 That said, when the link between deficit magnitude and disease severity was investigated with correlations, results differed. Based on these statistics, Gray and Tickle-Degnen 12 suggested that the level of FER deficit is unrelated to the level of motor disability reflected by Hoehn and Yahr staging.…”

“…From the earliest studies, authors controlled for visual functions with tasks such as the Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT). 90 Some found FER impairment among patients with no deficit in neutral faces recognition, 15,16,23,29,68,69,76,91 whereas others showed that face-processing impairment co-occurs with the deficit. 24,46 Gray and Tickle-Degnen 12 did not report any significant differences in FER abilities between patients who performed normally on tests like BFRT and patients with abnormal performance.…”

Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Face and Face Pareidolia in Parkinson’s Disease

“…ere are many studies showing impaired ability in facial processing in patients with PD. Alonso-Recio et al [33] found that configural processing of the face in Parkinson's patients was not universally impaired, but configural perception of faces does not seem to be globally impaired in PD. However, this ability is selectively altered when the categorization of emotional faces is required as Ariatti et al [34] suggested that the pattern of disorder in face expression processing in Parkinson's patients depends on the regional distribution of the neuropathology of the disease.…”