Emotion recognition and baseline cortisol levels relationship in early Alzheimer disease

Emotion recognition is often impaired in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and can be evaluated using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Similarly, cortisol levels can affect cognition and could be considered a biomarker of AD. The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between the emotion recognition task and cortisol levels in participants with early Alzheimer Disease (AD). Complex emotion recognition was assessed with RMET, and plasma cortisol levels were determined by mass spectrometry in participants classified into mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD (n = 25), mild dementia (MD) due to AD (n = 20), MCI non-AD (n = 34), MD non-AD (n = 13) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 16) groups. Significantly lower positive emotion recognition was found in the MCI non-AD group (p = 0.02) and lower emotion recognition in MD (AD and non-AD) groups (p