Psychophysiology of Emotion in Alzheimer's Disease

这项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。虽然现在人们对与DAT相关的认知缺陷了解很多，但相对较少的人知道疾病过程可能会如何影响与情绪相关的体验和行为。许多人观察到，患有DAT的人表现出情绪性的变化，包括怀疑、激动和易怒，这些变化在一定程度上导致了照顾者的重大痛苦。然而，一些临床医生就如何在语言能力恶化后最好地与DAT患者沟通提出了建议，这些建议包括征募情绪表达的使用，这被认为是相对完好的。没有足够的证据支持情绪线索加工在DAT中被保留的观点。在这方面所做的工作导致了关于患有DAT的个体处理情绪信息的能力的相互矛盾的结论。本研究的目的是利用情绪的心理生理学和自我报告测量来评估DAT患者的情绪处理能力，同时观察和听到情绪刺激。心理生理测量将包括记录皱眉肌、颧大肌和眼轮匝肌群的肌电以及皮肤电导反应。记录眼轮匝肌活动，以评估情绪相关惊恐反射的调节。情绪体验的自我报告将通过自评假人(SAM)获得。我们的假设是，患有DAT的个体将：1)表现出情绪信息加工的变化，表现为眨眼惊吓反射反应的情绪调节减弱；2)面部情绪表达的变化，积极情绪表达减少，负面情绪表达增加；3)表现出与情绪相关的SCR降低；以及4)他们对情绪的主观体验与对照组相似。这些发现将有助于更全面地了解患有DAT的个人的经历，为与DAT患者进行基于情感的沟通的文献提供信息，并进一步阐明照顾者可能关注的领域。这项研究将确定这项技术是否是测量DAT中情绪的有效手段，并将为未来情绪过程的神经关联的研究铺平道路。

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.