Exploring emotion recognition in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s dementia undergoing a rehabilitation program

AIM: This study aimed to explore differences in the emotions of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's dementia (AD) in group rehabilitation using facial analysis. METHOD: We conducted rehabilitation consisting of aerobic exercise, cognitive training, dual tasks (a combination of exercise and cognitive training), and creative activities in a group format with patients with MCI and dementia. The faces of the 30 patients (MCI: n=14; mild/moderate AD: n=16) who participated were filmed from the front with a small camera during the four tasks. Then, we used the Kokoro Sensor (CAC Corporation, Japan), a device which estimates emotion scores (anger, contempt, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise) based on different parts of the face using artificial intelligence, to calculate emotion scores for each activity, and compared them between the MCI and AD groups. RESULTS: Emotion scores for fear and surprise were significantly higher for the AD group than for the MCI group during dual tasks (p=0.016), while emotion scores for joy were significantly higher for the MCI group than for the AD group during creative activities (p=0.012). CONCLUSION: Creative activities and dual tasks, which require simultaneous physical activity and cognitive thinking, were difficult for patients with AD. On the other hand, tasks which used a range of cognitive functions, such as creative activities, evoked joy in patients with MCI. It may be beneficial to provide tasks and support to patients with respect to their unique emotions based on these results.