Avaliação da memória declarativa em uma amostra de pacientes com Doença de Alzheimer

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

The present study aims at contributing to the knowledge about the modulation of declarative memory by emotion in elderly with Alzheimers disease (AD) using an auditory-visual test with emotional content. Twenty subjects were selected ranging in age from 60 to 80 years old, 10 normal elderly controls and 10 with a suspicion of mild AD, according to NINCDS-ADRDA and Clinical Dementia Rating Scale - CDR criterion, voluntaries of the University Hospital of Brasília Assistance and Reference Center to the Elderly. Both groups were assessed with a neuropsychological battery in order to get an understanding of the mental state of each subject. The battery was used subsequently in the auditory -visual test of emotional memory. This auditory -visual test is compounded with a story in two versions, neutral and emotional and a recognizing questionnaire of multiple choices. During a first session, the subjects watched the neutral story and rated it as neutral or emotional. Then, the subjects watched the story again and filled a multiple choice questionnaire. After two weeks, the subjects watched the emotional story with the same procedure. In general, the results show that the test of emotional memory could be a sensitivity instrument to detect memory impairments in AD patients. The analysis of the control groups scores showed that they remembered more details of the stories than the AD patients. However, neither group demonstrated significant differences regarding to the story version. The reason of the absence of emotional activation in the control group could be due to the modification of the recognizing questionnaire in order to avoid a floor effect in the AD patients. A low performance on the questionnaires could be a good indicator of the memory impairments characteristic of Alzheimers disease. Regarding to the attribution of the emotional value to the stories, the healthy elderly differentiate emotionally the stories attributing more emotion to the emotional version. However, this pattern of emotional valuation was not observed in the AD patients since they attributed high emotional values to both stories. For a better understanding of the results obtained, AD patients scores on the emotional test, as well as on the neuropsychological tests were analyzed. This indicated an association between the task and different cognitive functions, specifically those that involve memory functions. Therefore, this evaluation suggests that the cognitive alterations observed in the AD patients could be associated with the modification on the processing of the stimulus (neutral and emotional), producing consequently, problems in the subsequent recognition task. Thus, these alterations, together with the memory impairments, could explain the lack of facilitation of emotion on the declarative memory of AD patients. Future studies, using a combination of neuropsychological instruments and complementary techniques of neuroimage, could contribute to explanation of the process of modulation of memory by emotion in AD patients.

ASSUNTO(S)

memória - doença de alzheimer histórias ciencias da saude emoção

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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