Characteristics of emotional memory in patients with thalamic infarction

Abstract

Objective To investigate the emotional memory changes in patients with thalamic infarction on different laterals and explore the impact of different emotional valence pictures on the thalamic infarction(TI) patients’ memory. Methods 28 patients with thalamic infarction(TI group)and 28 patients who were hospitalized without TI during the same period (control group) were given emotional memory test, a test where they use their emotional memory to evaluate and recognize pictures with different emotional valence, including positive, neutral, and negative valence. Results (1)At the stage of evaluating emotional images, there were no significant difference between patients with TI and control group in positive evaluation (P>0.05). Compared with control group (neutral(12.96±1.62) , negative(13.57±1.37), respectively), neutral and negative recognition scores for emotional pictures of patients with TI(neutral(10.79±2.07), negative(10.96±2.05), respectively) were decreased significantly(positive t=-4.5 and negative t=-5.6, both P 0.05). (3)The score of emotional pictures recognition in patients with LTI(34.43±3.48) were decreased significantly than that in patients with RTI(37.86±1.83)(t=3.26, P<0.05). The score in recognizing neutral valence images in patients with LTI(10.43±1.55) were significantly decreased than those in RTI(12.07±1.38)( t=2.95, P<0.05). Conclusion Patients with TI may rely on different neural mechanisms to affect the different valence of the emotional memory loop process.The emotional memory impairment in patients with TI at different sides is different.The left thalamus has a greater influence on memory. Key words: Thalamic infarction; Emotional memory; Neuropsychological tests