An Early Signal of Dementia Could Be Hidden in How We Read Faces
There is a lot to say For an optimistic lookHowever, a new study suggests that interpreting the feelings of other people more positively than actually is a sign of brain aging and mental decline.
This ‘Prejudice of Position’ It is known that it will be As we get older. Accordingly SOCIO -LANDGUSAL SELECTION THEORYA mechanism that helps us focus on good because of our future shrinking, protects mental prosperity by underestimating the negative.
However, a team of researchers from the UK and Israel proposes something different: prejudice is actually a sign of cognitive decrease, and even an early warning for neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer’s.
Relating to: Do you feel happy and sad? Here is how our brain manages mixed emotions.
“Our study supports the idea that age -related positivity reflects neurodegeneration, but this requires approval in future longitudic studies,” to write Authors in published articles.
The study hired 665 participants between the ages of 18-89 and was divided into about 10 years of age groups. Volunteers were asked to identify the emotions on the faces created by the computer. They also spent MRI Brain Scans and tested in terms of symptoms of cognitive fall and depression.
Participants were asked to identify the emotions on the faces created by the computer. (Wolpe et al., J. Neurosci.2025)
As expected, older people describe faces as positive emotions that make it easier than young people, while the possibility of labeling faces negatively is lower. Uncertain or difficult to read faces were mostly interpreted by elderly participants.
The data obtained from brain scans associated this positive prejudice with less gray substance of the brain hippocampus And amygdalaAreas in charge of processing emotions.
It was associated with higher, worse cognitive performance, but depressive symptoms. This important distinction supports the idea that error occurs in certain parts of the brain.
“Lack of relationship with depressive symptoms suggests that positiveness of positivity can help distinguish cognitive decrease from old age from depression.” to write Researchers.
Contributes to previous research that connects the cognitive decline insufficient Knowing emotions – something It was also seen In the early stages of Alzheimer. The results show that the part of the brain that reads emotion in others is somehow damaged by the beginning of the dementia.
The negative emotions presented in these experiments with anger, fear and sadness more difficult to detect These results are more than positive emotions, such as happiness, which is a way to explain.
Researchers say that this study represents a single point over time. As they get older, the same people do not follow the same people, and as their cognitive abilities and emotion recognition skills change, the cause and the result remain uncertain. This is something that future studies can address.
In the case of age -dependent cognitive decrease and dementia, there are many contributions that can be difficult to obtain a clear picture. However, this indicates a newly potential new vehicle to detect dementia – intervention and support can make the biggest difference.
He continued: “We investigate how these findings are related to older adults with an early cognitive decline, especially those who show symptoms of indifference, which is another early symptom of dementia,” he says Noham Wolpe of the neuroscientist from Tel Aviv University in Israel.
The research has been published there Neuroscience magazine.
