MentalHealthDaily

Facial Markers Differed in 31 Older Adults With MCI-Level MoCA Scores

by GLOOM

MHD featured image for resting facial expression markers and MCI-level cognition.

A 2026 medRxiv preprint found that older adults with mild-cognitive-impairment-level MoCA-J scores showed distinct resting facial action-unit patterns: AU10 upper lip raiser, AU23 lip tightener, and AU28 lip suck differed after correction in 45 analyzable participants.1 The result supports facial-expression screening research, but it does not show that a face video can diagnose MCI or …

Pulse-Wave Harmonics Flag MCI During Cognitive Stress: 2.6-Point Gap

by GLOOM

MHD featured image for pulse-wave harmonic coherence, cognitive stress, and mild cognitive impairment screening.

A 2026 community study of 101 older adults found that pulse-wave harmonics changed in a more organized way during a subtraction task in cognitively intact participants than in people with MoCA-defined mild cognitive impairment: amplitude-coherence scores averaged 9.00 vs. 6.40, a 2.60-point gap on a 0-10 scale. Research Highlights Cognitive stress exposed the signal: resting …