Implicit memory for emotional facial expressions (EFEs) was investigated in young adults, healthy old adults, and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Implicit memory is revealed by the effect of experience on performance by studying previously encoded versus novel stimuli, a phenomenon referred to as perceptual priming. The aim was to assess the changes in the patterns of priming as a function of aging and dementia. Participants identified EFEs taken from the Facial Action Coding System and the stimuli used represented the emotions of happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger, and disgust. In the study phase, participants rated the pleasantness of 36 faces using a Likert-type scale. Subsequently, the response to the 36 previously studied and 36 novel EFEs was tested when they were randomly presented in a cued naming task. The results showed that implicit memory for EFEs is preserved in AD and aging, and no specific age-related effects on implicit memory for EFEs were observed. However, different priming patterns were evident in AD patients that may reflect pathological brain damage and the effect of stimulus complexity. These findings provide evidence of how progressive neuropathological changes in the temporal and frontal areas may affect emotional processing in more advanced stages of the disease.
Diogenes syndrome (DS) is a behavioral disorder characterized by personal and social neglect. It has been described mostly in the elderly. People suffering from this syndrome accumulate large amounts of rubbish and useless objects, and live in poverty although they have the means to avoid it. They have also avoidance behavior, social withdrawal and anosognosia. Investigation on this syndrome has been sparse, and even its value as a clinical diagnosis has been questioned. Between one half and two-thirds of those who have it suffer from dementia or some type of psychiatric disorder. We describe a patient with DS as a clinical manifestation of frontotemporal dementia, and detail his clinical picture and course.
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