1. Emotional decoding abilities in Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis
- Author
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Yanica Klein-Koerkamp, Pascal Hot, Marine Beaudoin, Monica Baciu, Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition (LPNC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 (UPMF)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry]), Laboratoire Inter-universitaire de Psychologie : Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social (LIP-PC2S), and Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 (UPMF)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry])
- Subjects
MESH: Facial Expression ,Emotions ,MESH: Social Perception ,[SHS.PSY]Humanities and Social Sciences/Psychology ,Disease ,Neuropsychological Tests ,Developmental psychology ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cognitive decline ,ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS ,Depression (differential diagnoses) ,MESH: Publication Bias ,[SDV.NEU.PC]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC]/Psychology and behavior ,Depression ,General Neuroscience ,05 social sciences ,MESH: Neuropsychological Tests ,General Medicine ,Facial Expression ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,MESH: Photic Stimulation ,Social Perception ,Meta-analysis ,Data Interpretation, Statistical ,[SDV.NEU]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Neurons and Cognition [q-bio.NC] ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,Clinical psychology ,MESH: Depression ,MESH: Psychomotor Performance ,Emotional processing ,Affect (psychology) ,050105 experimental psychology ,03 medical and health sciences ,Disease severity ,Alzheimer Disease ,medicine ,Humans ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,Cognitive Dysfunction ,Cognitive deficit ,MESH: Emotions ,MESH: Humans ,MESH: Mild Cognitive Impairment ,Geriatrics and Gerontology ,MESH: Data Interpretation, Statistical ,Publication Bias ,MESH: Alzheimer Disease ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,Photic Stimulation ,Psychomotor Performance - Abstract
International audience; Studies on emotional processing in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have reported abnormalities in emotional decoding. However, it remains unclear whether the impairment depends on a general cognitive decline that characterizes these patients or is an independent deficit. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of existing studies that compared AD patients with age-matched healthy older adults (HOA) on measures of emotional decoding abilities. Our first goal was to quantify the magnitude of the AD patients' deficit. The second goal was to identify variables that may modulate the deficit, including emotional task design and participants' characteristics. The random-effects model analysis on 212 effect sizes indicated that AD patients showed significant impairment in emotional decoding abilities. This deficit is consistent regardless of the emotional task, stimuli, type of emotion considered, or disease severity. After we controlled for cognitive status, the emotional performance in AD patients was still poorer than that in HOA. The effect size of emotional performance was significantly lower when the cognitive status was considered than when it was not. Thus, our results suggest that impaired emotion processing in AD patients cannot be solely explained by the cognitive deficit. These findings provide evidence that progressive neuropathological changes characterizing the disease could affect emotional processing, which may suggest that clinicians should be sensitive to the emergence of impairments in emotional decoding. Further research that addresses the limitations of existing studies is needed to draw conclusions about methodological issues and the impact of the AD patient's depression symptoms on emotional decoding.
- Published
- 2012