A primary study on the emotional memory in patients with leuloaraiosis / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the emotional memory characteristic in patients with leuloaraiosis(LA) and explore the neurobiological mechanisms through observing the changes of emotional memory.Methods Different valence images (including positive,neutral and negative pictures) were used to test twenty-four patients with Leuloaraiosis(LA group)and twenty-four healthy colltrols(HC group) at the same time.The emotional memory was evaluated by the recognition of emotional pictures.Results In appraisal of the emotional pictures,there was no significant difference between patients with LA (positive (10.42±2.30) and neulral (12.87±2.29),respectively) and healthy controls (positive (11.38 ± 3.25) and neutral (12.75 ± 2.86),respectively) in positive and negative appraisal (all P＞0.05).But the negative appraisal decreased between LA group (11.63 ± 1.81) and HC group (12.75 ± 2.02) (P＞ 0.05).Compared with healthy controls (38.08+±5.45),patients with LA(33.67±7.10) showed sharply decline in the emotional images memorizing task(P＜0.05).And the accuracy in recognizing positive and netural valence pictures in patients with LA ((Positive(11.04±2.40) and neulral (10.42±2.93)) was significantly lower than that in healthy controls ((positive(12.79±2.17) and neutral(12.08±2.59))(P＜0.05).But in negative stimulus,there was no significant difference between LA group(13.20± 1.86)and HC group(12.20±2.65) (P＞0.05).In addition the total correct recognition,positive and neutral valence in pictures recognition were negativly correlated with the se verity of white matter lesions in the LA patients group(r=-0.308,P=0.033;r=-0.462,P=0.003;r=-0.352,P=0.014).Conclusion The emotional memory is impaired in patients with LA,and the degree of damage is accompornied with the severity degree of LA.The emotional memory for positive and neutral vanlence pictures is impaired but the emotional memory for neutral is relatively reserved in patients with LA in pictures recognition phase.It suggests that impaired emotional memory with different valences may be related to different neuromechanisms.