© 2000 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Impact of emotion on memory
Controlled study of the influence of emotionally charged material on declarative memory in Alzheimer's disease
Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hyogo Institute for Aging Brain and Cognitive Disorders, Himeji, Japan
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior and Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, University of California, Irvine, USA
Correspondence: Dr Hiroaki Kazui, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Hyogo Institute for Aging Brain and Cognitive Disorders, 520 Saisho-ko, Himeji, 670-0981, Japan. Tel.: +81 792 95 5511 ; fax: +81 792 95 8199; e-mail: kazui{at}hiabcd.go.jp
1 Long-term memory is differentiated into declarative memory and procedural memory. Declarative memory is explicit and conscious and it consists of information based on specific facts or data. Procedural memory is assessed by performance of particular skills and is usually retained in amnesia.
Background In an earlier study we showed that a powerful emotional experience (the Kobe earthquake) reinforced memory retention in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but we could not control factors other than the emotional impact of the earthquake.
Aims To test our previous findings in a controlled experimental study.
Method Recall tests consisting of two short stories were administered to 34 patients with Alzheimer's disease and 10 normal subjects. The two stories were identical except for one passage in each story: one was emotionally charged (arousing story) and the other (neutral story) was not.
Results In both groups, the emotionally charged passage in the arousing story was remembered better than the counterpart in the neutral story. In addition, the extent of the memory improvement was similar in the subjects and in the controls.
Conclusions The results provide further evidence that emotional arousal enhances declarative memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease, and give a clue to the management of people with dementia.
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