Research article summary (published 9 Aug 2009):

Threat perception in mild cognitive impairment and early dementia.

Full Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia affect many aspects of emotion processing. Even though the ability to detect threat is a particularly important aspect of emotion processing, no study to date has assessed threat perception in either of these groups. The purpose of the present study was to test whether individuals with MCI (n = 38) and mild dementia (n = 34) have difficulty differentiating between faces and situations normatively judged to be either high or low in threat relative to age-matched controls (n = 34). To achieve this aim, all participants completed 2 danger rating tasks that involved viewing and rating high- and low-danger images. It was also assessed whether threat perception was related to cognitive functioning and emotion recognition. The results indicated that all 3 groups were accurately, and comparably, able to differentiate high from low-danger faces. However, the dementia group had difficulties differentiating high from low-danger situations, which reflected a bias to overattribute the level of threat posed by normatively judged nonthreatening situations. This difficulty was related to more general cognitive decline.

Author information

Author/s: Henry, Julie D (JD); Thompson, Claire (C); Ruffman, Ted (T); Leslie, Felicity (F); Withall, Adrienne (A); Sachdev, Perminder (P); Brodaty, Henry (H);

Affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. julie.henry(-atsign-)unsw.edu.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences (J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 64 (issue 5) : pp 603-7

Dates: Created 2009/08/18; Completed 2009/08/28;

PMID: 19671637, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 8/28/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged Aged, 80 and over Alzheimer Disease - psychology Arousal Awareness Cognition Disorders - psychology Dangerous Behavior Emotions Facial Expression

Fear Female Humans Intention Judgment Male Mental Status Schedule Pattern Recognition, Visual Social Environment

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