Facial emotion recognition impairments are associated with brain volume abnormalities in individuals with HIV

Impaired facial emotion recognition abilities in HIV+ patients are well documented, but little is known about the neural etiology of these difficulties. We examined the relation of facial emotion recognition abilities to regional brain volumes in 44 HIV-positive (HIV+) and 44 HIV-negative control (H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 2015-04, Vol.70, p.263-271
Main Authors: Clark, Uraina S., Walker, Keenan A., Cohen, Ronald A., Devlin, Kathryn N., Folkers, Anna M., Pina, Matthew J., Tashima, Karen T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Amygdala
Anterior cingulate cortex
Association Learning
Brain - pathology
Emotion perception
Emotions
Facial Expression
Female
HIV
HIV Infections - complications
HIV Infections - pathology
HIV Infections - psychology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Memory Disorders - etiology
Middle Aged
Pattern Recognition, Visual - physiology
Psychosocial functions
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Structural neuroimaging
Vocabulary
Young Adult
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Summary:Impaired facial emotion recognition abilities in HIV+ patients are well documented, but little is known about the neural etiology of these difficulties. We examined the relation of facial emotion recognition abilities to regional brain volumes in 44 HIV-positive (HIV+) and 44 HIV-negative control (HC) adults. Volumes of structures implicated in HIV-associated neuropathology and emotion recognition were measured on MRI using an automated segmentation tool. Relative to HC, HIV+ patients demonstrated emotion recognition impairments for fearful expressions, reduced anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) volumes, and increased amygdala volumes. In the HIV+ group, fear recognition impairments correlated significantly with ACC, but not amygdala volumes. ACC reductions were also associated with lower nadir CD4 levels (i.e., greater HIV-disease severity). These findings extend our understanding of the neurobiological substrates underlying an essential social function, facial emotion recognition, in HIV+ individuals and implicate HIV-related ACC atrophy in the impairment of these abilities. •Neural correlates of facial emotion recognition (FER) deficits in HIV are unknown•FER was tested in non-demented HIV+ and control adults•Brain regions implicated in HIV-related neuropathology and FER were measured on MRI•Fear recognition deficits were associated with ACC atrophy in the HIV group•Results support the neural etiology of emotion processing impairments in HIV
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.03.003