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Emotional arousal enhances declarative memory in patients with Alzheimer’s disease
Author(s) -
Satler C.,
Garrido L. M.,
Sarmiento E. P.,
Leme S.,
Conde C.,
Tomaz C.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.2007.00897.x
Subject(s) - emotionality , psychology , arousal , declarative memory , developmental psychology , emotional memory , narrative , clinical psychology , cognition , psychiatry , social psychology , neuroscience , linguistics , philosophy , amygdala
Objective – To verify whether the long‐term retention of an emotionally arousing story is stronger than the retention of a neutral story, and the enhancing effects of emotional arousal on declarative memory in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Method – Twenty subjects (10 with AD and 10 controls matched for age and educational level) were studied. After the audiovisual presentation (neutral story), the subjects rated the narrative’s emotionality. Later, they answered a multiple‐choice questionnaire about the stories. Two weeks later, they watched the emotionally arousing story. Results – Subjects who watched the emotionally arousing story assigned a score of emotionality higher than the subjects in the neutral group ( P = 0.023). In addition, the participants remembered more details of the arousing story, and had a higher score in the questionnaire ( P < 0.001). Conclusions – We demonstrated that an emotionally arousing content enhances long‐term declarative memory in AD. Furthermore, present finding supports the use of this instrument for clinical and research purposes.