Emotion perception in old age and
dementia
Louise Phillips, Vasiliki Orgeta & Clare Scott
School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen.
Acknowledgements:
Alzheimer’s Research Trust
Donald Mowat & Stephen Bell, Grampian NHS Trust
Shelley Channon, UCL.
1
Ekman faces: emotion labelling task


DISGUST
HAPPINESS
SADNESS
FEAR
ANGER
SURPRISE?
Standardised stimuli.
Widely used in crosscultural and
neuropsychological
studies.
2
Meta-analysis of age effects on emotion labelling
Ruffman et al. (in prep)

Age difference in identifying:


Negative emotions of anger, sadness, fear.
No age difference in identifying:
Surprise, happiness, disgust.
 Positivity? Ceiling effects?

3
Outline of talk


Normal aging and Alzheimer’s Disease
cause impairments of emotion labelling.
Why?

Because of high cognitive load of the task?


Reduce cognitive load of task
Because of visual perceptual declines?
Vary intensity of emotion
 Relationship with face identity perception.

4
Cognitive components of emotion labelling

Labelling emotions
Rapid perceptual processing of valence
 Decision-making process: which label is best


Likely that decision-making process loads
working memory

Phillips et al. (under review): tested role of
working memory in emotion perception using
dual task methodology.
5
Dual task effects on emotion labelling and
discrimination. Phillips et al. (under review)
DISGUST
HAPPINESS
SADNESS
FEAR
ANGER
SURPRISE?
SAME
or
DIFFERENT
emotion?
80
80
70
70
60
60
50
50
single
dual
single
dual
6
Age effects on emotion discrimination task
MacPherson, Phillips & Della Sala (2007)


Looked at age effects on emotion labelling and
discrimination tasks
Size of age effects:



Labelling: eta squared = .28
Discrimination: eta squared = .33
Age differences in emotion perception not
caused by working memory demands of task
7
Age and visual cues in emotion perception
Orgeta & Phillips (in press)

Reduce intensity of emotion portrayed.
Particularly impair older adults?
 Also – remove ceiling effects on happiness


Are age differences in emotion perception
related to identity perception?

Benton Facial Recognition Test
8
Young
6
Old
4
2
0
Identifications % iiiiii
Happiness
Correct
Identifications % iiiiii
Correct
Effects of intensity on age differences in labelling
happy and sad faces Orgeta & Phillips (in press)
Sadness
Young
Old
6
4
2
0
25% 50% 75% 100%
25% 50% 75% 100%
Intensity Level
Intensity Level
9
Summary of aging effects on emotion perception

Old impaired: labelling sadness, anger and fear


Age impairments on face identity perception


No difference in age effect for less intense emotions
But unrelated to age declines in emotion perception
Older adults equally impaired on emotion
labelling and discrimination

Age differences not due to working memory load
10
Effects of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)
on emotion perception
11
Sample
Group
N
Age
Education MMSE
GDS
HC
30
72.97
12.13
29.40
1.70
AD
28
73.83
11.30
22.04
2.68
AD = HC AD = HC
HC > AD AD = HC
12
12
Methods: emotion/face tasks
Choose from emotion labels:
happiness
sadness
anger
disgust
surprise
fear
SAME
or
DIFFERENT
emotion?
Emotion labelling
Emotion discrimination
Identity recognition
13
13
Emotion labelling: AD v control
8
control
AD
4
2
e
ris
su
rp
fe
ar
gu
st
di
s
an
ge
r
sa
d
0
ha
pp
y
accuracy
6
14
14
Emotion labelling versus discrimination.
LABELLING
DISCRIMINATION
DISGUST
HAPPINESS
SADNESS
FEAR
ANGER
SURPRISE
Group effect size
d = 1.26
Group effect size
d = 0.95
15
Intensity effects on emotion perception

Saw faces at 75% and 100% intensity


No interaction between group and
intensity.


For each, asked to label emotion
E.g. AD patients good at identifying happiness
and disgust even at 75% intensity.
AD impaired on face identity perception

But unrelated to emotion perception
16
Summary of AD effects

AD impairs labelling of:
Anger, sadness, fear, surprise
 Size of effect same for less intense emotions


Impaired emotion perception in AD not
explained by:
Cognitive load of task
 Identity perception

17
Young, old and AD on emotion perception
Henry et al. (in prep.)
18
Conclusions

Age and AD effects on emotion perception:




Not explained by working memory load of task
Not influenced by intensity of emotional expression
Unrelated to identity perception
Why is disgust spared?

Neuropsychological explanation – dependent on
basal ganglia rather than temporal/frontal regions?
19
Emotion perception in old age and
dementia
Louise Phillips, Vasiliki Orgeta & Clare Scott
School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen.
Acknowledgements:
Alzheimer’s Research Trust
Donald Mowat & Stephen Bell
Shelley Channon
20
Age and visual cues in emotion perception
Benton Facial Recognition Test
21