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得很多，但对疾病过程如何影响与情绪相关的体验和行为知之甚少。许多人观察到患有DAT的人表现出情绪的变化，包括怀疑，激动和易怒，这些变化部分导致了照顾者的痛苦。然而，一些临床医生提出了关于如何最好地与语言能力恶化后的DAT患者进行沟通的建议，这些建议包括使用情绪表达，这被认为是保持相对完整的。目前还没有足够的证据来支持这一概念，即情绪线索处理保留在DAT。什么工作已经做了这导致了相互矛盾的结论与DAT个人处理情绪信息的能力。拟议的研究的目的是通过利用心理生理和自我报告的情绪，同时观看和听到的情绪诱发刺激的措施，以评估DAT的人的情绪处理能力。心理生理学测量将包括皱眉肌、大肌和眼轮匝肌肌群的肌电图记录以及皮肤电导反应。将记录眼轮匝肌活动，以评价情绪相关惊吓反射调节。情绪体验的自我报告将通过自我评估假人（SAM）获得。我们的假设是，患有DAT的个体将：1）表现出情绪信息处理的改变，表现为眨眼惊吓反射反应的情绪调节减弱; 2）表现出情绪面部表情的改变，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减少; 4）将他们的主观情绪体验与控制组相似。研究结果将提供一个更好的整体了解个人的经验与DAT，通知文献与DAT的人基于情感的沟通，并进一步阐明潜在的关注领域的照顾者。这项研究将确定这种技术是否是一种有效的手段来测量情绪的DAT，并为未来的调查情绪过程的神经相关。

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.