Natalia Irrazabal

Influence of the affective valence of visual materials in recognition among healthy individuals and patients with Alzheimer's disease dementia

OBJECTIVE: To research into the influence of the affective valence of picture in visual recognition tests among healthy individuals and patients with mild Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia (ADD). BACKGROUND:Patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) present with impairments both at the structures associated with emotions, and in episodic memory. The involvement of the amygdala in patients with AD might imply emotional deficit in information processing. It has been reported that the impairment of patients with AD to perceive emotions might be lower than their deficit at the level of other cognitive functions, with a higher recalling of materials when the materials have emotional content. DESIGN/METHODS: Fifteen healthy individuals (age (mean±Standard Deviation) 73±8.48 years, education 13.2±3.9 years, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) 29.4±1.55), and 15 patients with ADD (age 75.47±7.61 years, education 10.8±4 years, MMSE 24.6±2.85), paired by age and education were included. Ten pictures with neutral valence and 10 pictures with negative valence were selected from the International Affective Picture System, paired by arousal level. Successful recognition of pictures and reaction time by picture valence were assessed by ANOVA test. RESULTS: A better performance was recorded both in terms of the number of successful recognition instances (F=1570;p=0.01) and of reaction time (F=285.40;p=0.01) in the control group compared to patients with ADD. Both groups evidenced a better recognition accuracy with negative-valence pictures than with neutral-valence pictures (F=4.66;p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: A better performance of the control group was noted both in terms of processing rate and of recognition accuracy. In both groups, the recognition accuracy was higher with negative-valence prompts. These findings suggest that the emotional content of the information facilitates recognition. Disclosure: Dr. Irrazabal has nothing to disclose. Dr. Saux has nothing to disclose. Dr. Feldberg has nothing to disclose. Dr. Somale has nothing to disclose. Dr. Rojas has nothing to disclose. Dr. DEMEY has nothing to disclose.