Effects of emotional arousal on memory binding in normal aging and Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Previous research suggests that associative memory declines in normal aging and is severely affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, it is unclear whether and how this deficit can be minimized. The present study investigated whether emotional arousal improves associative memory in healthy younger and older adults and patients with probable AD. We examined the effect of arousal on memory for item-location associations. Arousal improved memory for item location similarly across the three groups, whereas valence had no effect in any groups. Overall, our results suggest that arousal has beneficial effects on associative memory in healthy older adults and patients with AD, as previously observed in younger adults.

Figures

Figure 1

(A) In Experiment 1, healthy older adults showed better location memory for arousing than non-arousing pictures, but the AD group did not show this advantage. (B) Experiment 2 replicated the finding of Experiment 1.