Objective:Late-onset amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) with long disease course and slow progression has been recently recognized as a possible phenotypical expression of a limbic-predominant neurodegenerative disorder. Basic emotion recognition ability crucially depending on temporo-limbic integrity is supposed to be impaired in this group of MCI subjects presenting a selective vulnerability of medio-temporal and limbic regions. However, no study specifically investigated this issue.Methods:Hereby, we enrolled 30 aMCI with a biomarker-based diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (i.e., aMCI-AD, n = 16) or a biomarker evidence of selective medio-temporal and limbic degeneration (aMCI-mTLD, n = 14). Ekman-60 Faces Test (Ek-60F) was administered to each subject, comparing the performance with that of 20 healthy controls (HCs).Results:aMCI-mTLD subjects showed significantly lower Ek-60F global scores compared to HC (p = 0.001), whose performance was comparable to aMCI-AD. Fear (p = 0.02), surprise (p = 0.005), and anger (p = 0.01) recognition deficits characterized the aMCI-mTLD performance. Fear recognition scores were significantly lower in aMCI-mTLD compared to aMCI-AD (p = 0.04), while no differences were found in other emotions.Conclusions:Impaired social cognition, suggested by defective performance in emotion recognition tasks, may be a useful cognitive marker to detect limbic-predominant aMCI subjects among the heterogeneous aMCI population.

中文翻译：

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遗忘性轻度认知障碍鉴别诊断中的情绪识别缺陷：边缘优势表型的认知标志物

目的：具有长病程和缓慢进展的迟发性遗忘型轻度认知障碍 (aMCI) 最近被认为是边缘为主的神经退行性疾病的可能表型表达。在这组 MCI 受试者中，主要依赖于时间边缘完整性的基本情绪识别能力应该受损，呈现出中颞和边缘区域的选择性脆弱性。然而，没有研究专门研究这个问题。方法：在此，我们招募了 30 个 aMCI，这些 aMCI 具有基于阿尔茨海默病的生物标志物诊断（即 aMCI-AD，n = 16）或选择性中颞叶和边缘变性的生物标志物证据（ aMCI-mTLD，n = 14）。对每个受试者进行 Ekman-60 Faces Test (Ek-60F)，将其性能与 20 名健康对照 (HC) 的性能进行比较。结果：与 HC 相比，aMCI-mTLD 受试者的 Ek-60F 整体得分显着降低（p = 0.001），其表现与 aMCI-AD 相当。恐惧 (p = 0.02)、惊讶 (p = 0.005) 和愤怒 (p = 0.01) 识别缺陷是 aMCI-mTLD 表现的特征。与 aMCI-AD 相比，aMCI-mTLD 的恐惧识别分数显着低于 aMCI-AD (p = 0.04)，而在其他情绪中没有发现差异。结论：情感识别任务中表现不佳表明的社会认知受损可能是一种有用的认知标记以检测异质 aMCI 人群中以边缘为主的 aMCI 受试者。01) 识别缺陷是 aMCI-mTLD 性能的特征。与 aMCI-AD 相比，aMCI-mTLD 的恐惧识别分数显着低于 aMCI-AD (p = 0.04)，而在其他情绪中没有发现差异。结论：情感识别任务中表现不佳表明的社会认知受损可能是一种有用的认知标记以检测异质 aMCI 人群中以边缘为主的 aMCI 受试者。01) 识别缺陷是 aMCI-mTLD 性能的特征。与 aMCI-AD 相比，aMCI-mTLD 的恐惧识别分数显着低于 aMCI-AD (p = 0.04)，而在其他情绪中没有发现差异。结论：情感识别任务中表现不佳表明的社会认知受损可能是一种有用的认知标记以检测异质 aMCI 人群中以边缘为主的 aMCI 受试者。