P3‐481: Emotional Modulation of Memory Across the Alzheimer's Disease Spectrum and Association With Grey Matter Density
Year: 2019
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Memory impairment is the cognitive hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, some studies have shown that emotional memory may be preserved to some extent in AD. The emotional enhancement effect (EEE), which is the increase in memory for emotional material compared to neutral material, is well known in healthy participants, but not well characterized in AD patients. We wanted to verify the impact of EEE in the Alzheimer's disease spectrum and to characterize the grey matter density in association with emotional memory. The sample was composed of 35 elderly adults from the TRIAD cohort (11 cognitively healthy elderly (CH); 14 adults diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 10 adults suffering from AD dementia). They were 72 years old on average, with 15 years of education, 49% of which were female. A computerized emotional story with a narrative was showed to the participants and they had to memorize it. Additionally, all participants had detailed clinical and neuropsychological assessments. They underwent a MRI and the grey matter density was measured with voxel based morphometry. Linear regression was used to examine the relation of grey matter density on emotional memory. The performance for the overall emotional memory test was higher in CN (65%) compared to both patients groups (MCI; 44% and AD; 12%). The CN and the MCI participants had an equivalent memory recall for both the neutral and the emotional details of the story. However, the AD participants had a poor recall of the neutral details (11% retention), but they performed significantly better for the emotional details (20% retention) (p = 0.05). The neuroimagery results revealed that better performance on this test was associated with greater grey matter density in the right amygdala and medial temporal lobe.
Source: Alzheimer s & Dementia
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2981298202