Rehabilitation of Facial Emotion Recognition in Alzheimer's Disease

Rehabilitation of Facial Emotion Recognition in Alzheimer's Disease and Study of the Consequences on Gaze Strategy, Behavior Disorders and Family Caregivers' Burden

This study aims to evaluate impacts of an emotion recognition rehabilitation program, named Training of Affect Recognition, on social cognition abilities in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In addition, we hypothesis that the effect of this rehabilitation will also evolve gaze strategies, behavioral disorders, and the caregiver's burden.

It is commonly admitted that social cognition impairment, like deficit in facial emotion recognition or misinterpretation of others' intentions (Theory of Mind), are associated with social behavior disorders.

This kind of disorders are observed in Fronto-Temporal Dementia, Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) and Parkinson's Disease, with severe deficits in FTD and lighter deficits in AD and PD. One explanation is that patients apply inappropriate visual exploration strategies to decode emotions and intentions of others.

Our study aims to evaluate impacts of an emotion recognition rehabilitation program, named Training of Affect Recognition, on social cognition abilities (facial emotion recognition (FER) and theory of mind (ToM)) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In addition, we hypothesis that the effect of this rehabilitation will also evolve gaze strategies, behavioral disorders, and the caregiver's burden.

Inclusion Criteria:

• AD diagnosed according to l'IWG-2 (Dubois & al. 2014) criteria,
• Mini-Mental State (MMS-E) ≥15
• Subject accompanied by a family caregiver and whose participation in a cognitive stimulation workshop was recommended in Memory Centre of the RAINIER Centre (Princesses Grace Hospital - Monaco)
• Written informed consent signed by patient and family caregiver.

Exclusion Criteria:

• General anaesthesia within 3 months.
• Ophthalmological or neurological problems preventing a video-oculography examination.
• Oculomotor disorders such as "fixation disorders" or "ocular tracking disorders".
• Cognitive disorders of the type: visual agnosia, visuo-spatial disorder, visuo-perceptual disorder or aphasia.
• History of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia
• History of alcohol abuse.