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Peer-reviewedCC BYBrain structure & function

Facial emotion recognition of sadness relates to superior parietal gray matter volume in mild cognitive impairment.

  • Rachana Mahadevan1
  • Naomi Kristin Giesers2
  • Thomas Liman2,3,4
  • Karsten Witt2,5
  • Andrea Hildebrandt6
  • Mandy Roheger7,5
  • Stephanie Rosemann5,8
8 affiliations
  1. 1Ambulatory Assessment in Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany. [email protected].
  2. 2Department of Human Medicine, University Clinic for Neurology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
  3. 3Center for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charite Platz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
  4. 4German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease (DZNE), Berlin, Germany.
  5. 5Research Center Neurosensory Science, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
  6. 6Psychological Methods and Statistics, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
  7. 7Ambulatory Assessment in Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
  8. 8Biological Psychology Lab, Department of Psychology, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
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Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with early, regionally selective neurodegenerative changes that may affect socioemotional functioning before atrophy becomes widespread. This study examined whether structural brain alterations in MCI relate to facial emotion recognition performance. Sixty adults (30 MCI, 30 healthy controls), aged 50-86 years, completed neuropsychological testing, the Facial emotion composite Task, and structural MRI. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry revealed no significant gray matter volume differences between groups. However, targeted region-of-interest ROI analyses demonstrated lower right amygdala and bilateral hippocampal volumes in patients with MCI. Cortical thickness analyses identified two regions with lower thickness in MCI: the right superior parietal lobule and the left posterior insula. A significant Group × Sadness interaction indicated that the association between left superior parietal gray matter volume and sadness recognition differed between groups. Follow-up analyses of the extracted values showed a positive association in MCI, although this within-group association did not reach statistical significance, and a significant inverse association in HCs. These findings suggest that early MCI involves selective thinning in association cortices supporting attention and salience processing. The sadness-specific interaction indicates that patients with MCI may rely on preserved superior parietal structure during sadness recognition, a pattern that is consistent with structural reserve accounts, although this interpretation remains speculative given the cross-sectional design.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{mahadevan2026facial,
  title = {{Facial emotion recognition of sadness relates to superior parietal gray matter volume in mild cognitive impairment.}},
  author = {Rachana Mahadevan and Naomi Kristin Giesers and Thomas Liman and Karsten Witt and Andrea Hildebrandt and Mandy Roheger and Stephanie Rosemann},
  journal = {Brain structure \& function},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1007/s00429-026-03215-4},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42891713},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Facial emotion recognition of sadness relates to superior parietal gray matter volume in mild cognitive impairment.
AU  - Rachana Mahadevan
AU  - Naomi Kristin Giesers
AU  - Thomas Liman
AU  - Karsten Witt
AU  - Andrea Hildebrandt
AU  - Mandy Roheger
AU  - Stephanie Rosemann
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/17
JO  - Brain structure & function
DO  - 10.1007/s00429-026-03215-4
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42891713
AB  - Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with early, regionally selective neurodegenerative changes that may affect socioemotional functioning before atrophy becomes widespread. This study examined whether structural brain alterations in MCI relate to facial emotion recognition performance. Sixty adults (30 MCI, 30 healthy controls), aged 50-86 years, completed neuropsychological testing, the Facial emotion composite Task, and structural MRI. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry revealed no significant gray matter volume differences between groups. However, targeted region-of-interest ROI analyses demonstrated lower right amygdala and bilateral hippocampal volumes in patients with MCI. Cortical thickness analyses identified two regions with lower thickness in MCI: the right superior parietal lobule and the left posterior insula. A significant Group × Sadness interaction indicated that the association between left superior parietal gray matter volume and sadness recognition differed between groups. Follow-up analyses of the extracted values showed a positive association in MCI, although this within-group association did not reach statistical significance, and a significant inverse association in HCs. These findings suggest that early MCI involves selective thinning in association cortices supporting attention and salience processing. The sadness-specific interaction indicates that patients with MCI may rely on preserved superior parietal structure during sadness recognition, a pattern that is consistent with structural reserve accounts, although this interpretation remains speculative given the cross-sectional design.
SN  - 1863-2653
SN  - 1863-2661
ER  -