Emotional memory impairment in patients with lesions in profronal cortex / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the emotional memory impairment in patients with lesions located in prefrontal cortex(PFC), and to test the hypothesis that prefrontal cortex is involved in the emotional memory network. Methods The 40 patients with lesions in PFC and forty age-education-level matched healthy adults were given emotional memory tasks using positive, neutral and negative valence images. Results Compared with the healthy adults(positively(11.68 ± 2. 18)and negatively(12. 93 ±1.33)), the patients had significant loss in positively(8. 20 ± 2.02)and negatively(8. 68 ± 1.14)valence image memorizing(t = 7.41, - 2. 75, both P ＜ 0. 05). There was no insignificant impairment in neutral stimuli. Performance difference between left PFC and right PFC in positively(8. 90 ±2. 01 vs 7.50 ± 1.79)and negatively(7.30 ± 1.10 vs 9. 05 ± 1. 00)valence image recognition was significant(Z = -2. 15,-2. 07,both P ＜ 0. 05). Conclusion The results suggest that emotional memory is impaired in the patients with lesions in PFC. The impairment difference between left PFC and right PFC indicates that they may have different neuromechanisms.