Effect of Social Cognition and Interaction Training on Facial Emotion Recognition in the Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objectives :

One of the most common problems in old age is mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which, in addition to cognitive problems, reduces important aspects of social cognition ability such as facial emotion recognition (FER). One of the effective methods in this field is social cognition and interaction training (SCIT). The present study aims to investigate the effect of SCIT on FER  in the elderly with MCI.

Methods & Materials :

This is a quasi-experimental study with pretest/post-test/follow-up design. The study population includes all the elderly over 60 years with MCI living in nursing homes in Tehran, Iran in 2021. Of these, 40 were selected by purposive and convenience sampling methods and randomly assigned to intervention (n=20) and control (n=20) groups. The intervention group received group SCIT at 20 sessions of 60 minutes for two months. During this period, the control group had no training. The used test included the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test and the Face Emotion Recognition Test. The data were analyzed by mixed analysis of variance and Bonferroni post-hoc test in SPSS software, version 23. 

Results :

The results of mixed analysis of variance showed that the group and time factors explained 51% and 71% of variances in FER, respectively. The results of Bonferroni test showed that FER score in the intervention group was increased immediately after and two months after training, indicating that SCIT had a significant effect on FER (P<0.001). However, FER score in the control group did not show a significant change.

Conclusion:

 The SCIT can be used as an effective method to increase FER in the elderly by using techniques such as examining the role of emotions in social environments and developing emotion recognition skills.