Recognition memory for emotional pictures in Alzheimer's patients.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present study was to examine whether Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients can benefit from the emotional content of visual stimuli in a picture recognition test.


METHODS
Sixteen patients with AD and 19 normal controls matched for age and years of education, were studied. Sixteen pictures (with varying emotional contents) were presented to each participant. Thirty minutes later, a recognition test was applied with the target-pictures mixed among 34 others of similar content. The subjects were instructed to rate them as pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent.


RESULTS
The total of pictures correctly recognized by the AD patients (75.4% of the target-pictures) was smaller than that of the controls (96.4%). Controls recognized more emotional pictures than indifferent pictures.


CONCLUSIONS
Emotional content enhanced recognition of pictures in normal subjects, whereas for the Alzheimer's subjects the emotional significance attached to the pictures was of no benefit to enhance recognition.
Abrisqueta-Gomez
J
J
Department of Psychobiology, UNIFESP-EPM São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Bueno
O F A
OF
Oliveira
M G M
MG
Bertolucci
P H F
PH
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000679:Amygdala / Q000503:physiopathology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010781:Photography; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*