Face recognition may be first to go.

• Position: Dementia - Brief article

The inability to recognize faces appears to be a sensitive and reliable marker for identifying the earliest stages of dementia in the elderly, indicate scientists at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, La.

"The data not only indicates that facial recognition tests may provide one of the most sensitive ways to detect the earliest stages of dementia, but it provides important information on how normal aging is differentiated from the earliest stages of dementia," explains Robert Brouillette, director of the Institute for Dementia...