Impaired emotional autobiographical memory associated with right amygdalar-hippocampal atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease patients (original) (raw)
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Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2014
Emotional information is typically better remembered than neutral content, and previous studies suggest that this effect is subserved particularly by the amygdala together with its interactions with the hippocampus. However, it is not known whether amygdala damage affects emotional memory performance at immediate and delayed recall, and whether its involvement is modulated by stimulus valence. Moreover, it is unclear to what extent more distributed neocortical regions involved in e.g., autobiographical memory, also contribute to emotional processing. We investigated these questions in a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), which affects the amygdala, hippocampus and neocortical regions. Healthy controls (n = 14), patients with AD (n = 15) and its putative prodrome amnestic mild cognitive impairment (n = 11) completed a memory task consisting of immediate and delayed free recall of a list of positive, negative and neutral words. Memory performance was related to brain integrity in region of interest and whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses. In the brain-behavioral analyses, the left amygdala volume predicted the immediate recall of both positive and negative material, whereas at delay, left and right amygdala volumes were associated with performance with positive and negative words, respectively. Whole-brain analyses revealed additional associations between left angular gyrus integrity and the immediate recall of positive words as well as between the orbitofrontal cortex and the delayed recall of negative words. These results indicate that emotional memory impairments in AD may be underpinned by damage to regions implicated in emotional processing as well as frontoparietal regions, which may exert their influence via autobiographical memories and organizational strategies.
Emerging Directions in Emotional Episodic Memory
Frontiers in psychology, 2017
Building upon the existing literature on emotional memory, the present review examines emerging evidence from brain imaging investigations regarding four research directions: (1) Social Emotional Memory, (2) The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Impact of Emotion on Memory, (3) The Impact of Emotion on Associative or Relational Memory, and (4) The Role of Individual Differences in Emotional Memory. Across these four domains, available evidence demonstrates that emotion- and memory-related medial temporal lobe brain regions (amygdala and hippocampus, respectively), together with prefrontal cortical regions, play a pivotal role during both encoding and retrieval of emotional episodic memories. This evidence sheds light on the neural mechanisms of emotional memories in healthy functioning, and has important implications for understanding clinical conditions that are associated with negative affective biases in encoding and retrieving emotional memories.
Effects of normal aging and Alzheimer's disease on emotional memory
Emotion, 2002
Recall is typically better for emotional than for neutral stimuli. This enhancement is believed to rely on limbic regions. Memory is also better for neutral stimuli embedded in an emotional context. The neural substrate supporting this effect has not been thoroughly investigated but may include frontal lobe, as well as limbic circuits. Alzheimer's disease (AD) results in atrophy of limbic structures, whereas normal aging relatively spares limbic regions but affects prefrontal areas. The authors hypothesized that AD would reduce all enhancement effects, whereas aging would disproportionately affect enhancement based on emotional context. The results confirmed the authors' hypotheses: Young and older adults, but not AD patients, showed better memory for emotional versus neutral pictures and words. Older adults and AD patients showed no benefit from emotional context, whereas young adults remembered more items embedded in an emotional versus neutral context. Declarative memory for emotional stimuli (positive and negative) is typically better than memory for neu
Evidence for preserved emotional memory in normal older persons
Emotion, 2003
Emotion has been shown to have a modulatory effect on declarative memory. Normal aging is associated with a decline in declarative memory, but whether aging might affect the influence of emotion on memory has not been established. To investigate this, we administered a task that provides a detailed assessment of emotional memory to 80 neurologically normal adults ranging in age from 35 to 85 years. Across ages, memory performance was found to be modulated by the emotional significance of stimuli in a comparable manner (improved memory for gist, compromised memory for visual detail), despite an overall decline in memory performance with increasing age. The results raise the interesting possibility that aging has a differential effect on hippocampal versus amygdala function.
Neural Correlates of Emotional Memories: A Review of Evidence from Brain Imaging Studies
PSYCHOLOGIA, 2012
What are the neural markers of encoding and retrieving emotional events with increased efficacy? In recent years, this question has captured the attention of cognitive neuroscientists who fervently engaged in addressing it using a multitude of approaches. The present review discusses evidence from brain imaging studies investigating the neural correlates of the memory-enhancing effect of emotion in healthy human participants. The available evidence points to two main mechanisms: one direct involving the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and the other indirect involving the prefrontal cortex (PFC), among other brain regions. Recent studies also showed that these mechanisms are sensitive to aspects relevant to social interactions, as well as to personality-, sex-and age-related differences. Overall, this evidence provides insights into the brain mechanisms that make emotional memories special, and points to possible alterations that could lead to negative affective biases in encoding and remembering emotional memories observed in affective disorders.
Effects of Alzheimer disease on memory for verbal emotional information
Neuropsychologia, 2004
In healthy young and older adults, emotional information is often better remembered than neutral information. It is an open question, however, whether emotional memory enhancement is blunted or preserved in Alzheimer disease (AD). Prior studies of emotional memory in AD have included small samples of patients. In addition, studies that failed to find an enhancement effect in AD used stimuli lacking semantic coherence (e.g. lists of unrelated words, some that were emotional and others that were neutral). To circumvent these limitations, the present study examined a large number of AD patients (N = 80) and investigated whether AD patients would show better memory for a verbal description of an emotional event as compared to a neutral one. AD patients were equivalent to young and older control participants in rating the emotional descriptions for valence and arousal. Unlike the control groups, however, memory in AD patients did not benefit from the emotional narratives. We conclude that AD disrupts memory enhancement for at least some types of verbal emotional information.
Two routes to emotional memory: Distinct neural processes for valence and arousal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2004
Prior investigations have demonstrated that emotional information is often better remembered than neutral information, but they have not directly contrasted effects attributable to valence and those attributable to arousal. By using functional MRI and behavioral studies, we found that distinct cognitive and neural processes contribute to emotional memory enhancement for arousing information versus valenced, nonarousing information. The former depended on an amygdalar-hippocampal network, whereas the latter was supported by a prefrontal cortex-hippocampal network implicated in controlled encoding processes. A behavioral companion study, with a divided-attention paradigm, confirmed that memory enhancement for valenced, nonarousing words relied on controlled encoding processes: concurrent task performance reduced the enhancement effect. Enhancement for arousing words occurred automatically, even when encoding resources were diverted to the secondary task. W hy do we remember some experiences while forgetting others? Neuroimaging has provided a tool to probe this question. By comparing the neural activity during encoding of items that are later remembered versus those that are later forgotten (a ''subsequent memory'' analysis), one can examine the processes mediating successful encoding (i.e., that are carried out during encoding of words that will later be remembered; reviewed in ref. 1). Functional MRI studies have indicated that activation in prefrontal cortex (PFC), hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus underlies successful encoding, such that greater activation in these regions increases the probability that information will be remembered.
Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders Extra, 2015
Aims: We examined the 'positivity effect' on memory performance in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia patients. Methods: In 109 subjects (28 controls, 32 with MCI, 27 with mild and 32 with moderate dementia), we investigated free recalls (immediate and delayed) and recognition of 12 pictures. Moreover, the emotional valence of the pictures perceived and the emotions evoked in the subjects were evaluated. Results: Patients with mild and moderate dementia recalled fewer pictures than those with MCI or the healthy controls. Across the groups, the positive pictures were better memorized and induced a higher arousal than the negative or neutral ones. Conclusions: Our findings indicate a positivity effect on memory performance and intensity of experience not only in healthy elderly patients but also in those with MCI or mild and moderate dementia. This effect does not refer to the compliance of the patients investigated since they perceived and experienced the pictures in the expected way.