Emotional arousal is associated with enhanced memory in neurologically intact individuals, but it is unknown whether this effect is obtained in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The current study compared emotional memory and emotional reactions in patients with early AD and in older controls. Participants viewed emotionally arousing (both pleasant and unpleasant) and neutral photographs while cognitive and electrophysiological reactions were assessed. Memory was tested by free recall and recognition. Emotional reactions were normal in the AD group, but the emotional memory effect (enhanced memory for emotional vs. neutral stimuli) was impaired. Recall results indicated that this effect was normal for pleasant stimuli but abnormal for unpleasant stimuli. These results suggest that the neural basis for the emotional memory effect may be disrupted in AD. Findings are discussed in terms of the role of the amygdala in mediating emotional memory.

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The mere exposure effect was examined in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). Twenty patients and 20 elderly controls judged the physical characteristics of faces. Implicit memory was tested later by presenting pairs of faces (old and new) and asking participants which faces they liked better. Patients and controls exhibited above chance preference for previously exposed faces. Experiment 2 evaluated whether the preserved implicit memory of patients was mediated by explicit memory. Patients and controls again judged faces but then later chose which faces they had seen before. Patients exhibited impaired recognition memory compared to controls. These findings suggest that a mere exposure effect for unfamiliar faces is present in mild to moderate AD. The results are discussed in terms of perceptual and conceptual priming and relatively spared occipital lobe functioning in early AD.

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