Psychophysiology of Emotion in Alzheimer's Disease

本研究的长期目标是评估阿尔茨海默型痴呆（DAT）患者的情绪处理能力。虽然现在对与DAT相关的认知缺陷了解很多，但对疾病过程如何影响与情绪相关的经历和行为知之甚少。许多人观察到，患有DAT的人在情绪上表现出变化，包括怀疑、躁动和易怒，这些变化在一定程度上导致了显著的照顾者痛苦。然而，一些临床医生已经就语言能力恶化后如何最好地与DAT患者沟通提出了建议，这些建议包括使用情感表达，这被认为是相对完整的。目前还没有足够的证据支持情绪线索加工在DAT中保留的观点。在这方面所做的工作导致了关于DAT个体处理情感信息的能力的相互矛盾的结论。本研究的目的是利用心理生理和自我报告的情绪测量来评估DAT患者在观看和听到情绪诱发刺激时的情绪加工能力。心理生理测量将包括瓦楞肌纤毛上、颧大肌和眼轮匝肌群的肌电记录以及皮肤电导反应。将记录眼轮匝肌活动，以评估与情绪相关的惊吓反射调制。使用自我评估模型（SAM）进行情绪体验的自我报告。我们的假设是，患有DAT的个体将：1)在情绪信息处理方面表现出变化，这可以通过眨眼惊吓反射反应的情绪调节减弱来证明；2)面部情绪表达出现变化，积极情绪表达减少，消极情绪表达增加；3)表现出情绪相关SCR的降低；4)评估他们的主观情绪体验，与对照组相似。研究结果将有助于更好地全面了解患有DAT的个体的经历，为与患有DAT的人进行基于情感的交流的文献提供信息，并进一步阐明护理人员可能关注的领域。本研究将确定该技术是否是一种有效的测量数据中的情绪的手段，并将为未来研究情绪过程的神经关联铺平道路。

The long-term goal of this research is to assess emotion processing abilities of individuals with Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (DAT). While much is now known about the cognitive deficits associated with DAT, relatively little is known about how the disease process might affect emotion-related experiences and behaviors. Many have observed that persons with DAT display changes in emotionality, including suspiciousness, agitation, and irritability, and these changes contribute in part to significant caregiver distress. However, several clinicians have made recommendations regarding how best to communicate with persons with DAT after language abilities with deteriorated, and these recommendations have including enlisting the use of emotion expression, which is assumed to remain relatively intact. There exists insufficient evidence to support the notion that emotion cue processing is preserved in DAT. What work has been done in this has resulted in conflicting conclusions regarding the abilities of individuals with DAT to process emotional information. The objective of the proposed research is to evaluate the emotion processing abilities of persons with DAT by utilizing psychophysiological and self-report measures of emotion while viewing and hearing emotion eliciting stimuli. The psychophysiological measures will include electromyogram recordings of corrugator supercillii, zygomaticus major, and orbicularis oculi muscle groups as well as skin conductance responses. Orbicularis oculi activity will be recorded to evaluate emotion-related startle reflex modulation. Self- report of emotional experience will be obtained with the Self- Assessment Manikin (SAM). Our hypotheses are that individuals with DAT will: 1) exhibit alterations in the processing of emotional information, evidenced by an attenuation of the emotion modulation of the eye-blink startle reflex response; 2) display alterations in the facial expression of emotions, with a reduction in positive emotional expressions and an increase in negative emotional expressions; 3) exhibit reduced emotion-related SCR; and 4) rate their subjective experiences of emotion similarly to the control group. The findings will provide for a better overall understanding of the experience of individuals with DAT, inform the literature on emotion-based communication with persons with DAT, and further elucidate potentials areas of concern for caregivers. This study will establish whether this technique is a valid means for measuring emotion in DAT, and will pave the way for future investigations of neural correlates of emotional processes.