Feb. 27, 2013 People with HIV are less able to recognise facial
emotion than non-infected people finds a study published in the
launch edition of BioMed Central's open access journal BMC
Psychology. Reduction in their ability to recognise fear in
others is linked to a similar loss in immediate recall, while
those with a lower general neurocognitive performance also had a
reduced ability to recognise happiness. The mechanism behind
recognition of facial emotion is complex, involving many
different areas of the brain, including the frontostriatal
pathway and amygdala. The frontostriatal pathway is essential
for learning and behavioural adaption, while the amygdale is
involved in memory and emotion. The loss of this ability can be
debilitating, impacting daily life and personal interactions.
Comparing people with HIV to a control group without HIV,
researchers from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in
Rome discovered that from the six basic expressions of emotion
(disgust, anger, fear, happiness, surpr