Abstract
We review recent work on emotional memory enhancement in older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer dementia (AD) and evaluate the viability of incorporating emotional components into cognitive rehabilitation for these groups. First, we identify converging evidence regarding the effects of emotional valence on working memory in healthy aging. Second, we introduce work that suggests a more complex role for emotional memory enhancement in aging and identify a model capable of unifying disparate research findings. Third, we survey the neuroimaging literature for evidence of a special role for the amygdala in MCI and early AD in emotional memory enhancement. Finally, we assess the theoretical feasibility of incorporating emotional content into cognitive rehabilitation given all available evidence.
Highlights
Contemporary cognitive rehabilitation, especially when delivered alongside pharmacotherapy, has been shown to improve memory outcomes and delay dementia progression in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer dementia (AD) (Mimura and Komatsu, 2007)
We review recent work on emotional memory enhancement in older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer dementia (AD) and evaluate the viability of incorporating emotional components into cognitive rehabilitation for these groups
One account of the positivity effect holds that changes in valence biases reflect top-down changes in emotional regulation with aging (Carstensen et al, 1999). It appears that older adults may have unique mental processes that enable them to encode positively valenced stimuli in a manner categorically different from younger adults (Charles and Carstensen, 2007). This perspective suggests that older adults may have special valence-specific cognitive biases that may be used in the context of emotional memory enhancement to improve memory outcomes
Summary
Contemporary cognitive rehabilitation, especially when delivered alongside pharmacotherapy, has been shown to improve memory outcomes and delay dementia progression in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early Alzheimer dementia (AD) (Mimura and Komatsu, 2007). We review recent work on emotional memory enhancement in older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer dementia (AD) and evaluate the viability of incorporating emotional components into cognitive rehabilitation for these groups. We introduce work that suggests a more complex role for emotional memory enhancement in aging and identify a model capable of unifying disparate research findings.
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