José María Arana Martínez

La influencia de la emoción en la memoria como índice para el diagnóstico temprano del Alzheimer

Introduction: during non-pathological aging the modulatory effect of emotion on memory is impaired, being particularly sensitive to amygdala and hippocampus atrophy that occurs in Alzheimers disease. Aim: the aim of this paper is to analyze how this affects the deterioration of affective states at the beginning and during development of the disease and how the difficulties in remembering emotional information could be used to study emotional valence and arousal levels, in order to develop a test capable of detecting these problems in early stages of the disease. Conclusions: in light of the studies consulted, we recommend the use of recognition instead free recall; multilevel emotional induction methods and greater sensitivity in the analysis of data using parameters based on Signal Detection Theory. The clinical implications of this approach focus on diagnosis, where emotion should be integrated at the same analysis level as memory and attention, and also in the experimental field, providing tools for neuroimaging studies with which to study biological bases of emotional dysfunction. (Alzheimer. Real Invest Demenc. 2011;48:33-38)