
Alzheimer's disease not only steals people's memories but also their ability to recognize faces, which widens the gulf between people with this disease and their loved ones.
A recent study has demonstrated that, beyond causing memory problems, Alzheimer's disease also impairs visual face perception. This finding may help families better understand their loved one's inevitable difficulties and lead to new avenues to postpone this painful aspect of the disease. Research in this area by the team of Dr. Sven Joubert, PhD, a researcher at the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal and a professor with the Department of Psychology at Université de Montréal, will be published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.
Face perception plays a fundamental role in human communication, which is why humans have evolved into experts at quickly detecting and identifying faces. This faculty is thought to depend on the ability to perceive a face as a whole. Also known as "holistic perception," this ability is in contrast to the local and detailed analysis required to perceive individual facial features, such as the eyes, nose or mouth. Dr. Joubert's study has demonstrated that the holistic ability to perceive faces is impaired by Alzheimer's disease.
Overall, Dr. Joubert's study better explains the mechanism involved in the problem that people with Alzheimer's have with recognizing the faces of family members or celebrities. The fact that impaired facial recognition might stem from a holistic perception problem--and not just a general memory problem--opens the door to different strategies (such as the recognition of particular facial traits or voice recognition) to help patients recognize their loved ones for longer.
Source: Eurekalert
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