A Study of Visual Recognition of Facial Emotional Expressions in a Normal Aging Population in the Absence of Cognitive Disorders

Objective: To examine and measure the decision-making processes involved in Visual Recognition of Facial Emotional Expressions (VRFEE) and to study the effects of demographic factors on this process. Method: We evaluated a newly designed software application (M.A.R.I.E.) that permits computerized metric measurement of VRFEE. We administered it to 204 cognitively normal par-ticipants ranging in age from 20 to 70 years. Results: We established normative values for the recognition of anger, disgust, joy, fear, surprise and sadness expressed on the faces of three indi-viduals. There was a significant difference in the: 1) measurement (F (8.189) = 3896, p = 0.0001); 2) education level (χ2(12) = 28.4, p = 0.005); 3) face (F(2.195) = 10, p = 0.0001); 4)series (