Cogito ergo sum? -- refocusing dementia ethics in a hypercognitive society

Emotion processing in Alzheimer's disease

To date, there have been few studies of emotion processing in those suffering from Alzheimer's disease, yet this may have an important effect on the quality of life of both sufferers and their families. This paper describes an investigation of the relative changes in cognition and in recognition and identification of non-verbal communicative signals of emotion in those suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and seeks to address the implications for clinical practice. Twelve adults with a diagnosis of "probable" Alzheimer's disease and 12 matched older adult healthy comparison participants undertook a series of tasks involving face and prosody discrimination. Facial stimuli were presented on cards, and prosodic stimuli on audiotape. Scores were compared with a measure of general cognitive ability. There was a significant difference between the Alzheimer's disease group and healthy older adult group on emotion and cognition tasks respectively. However, the ability to recognize and identify non-verbal affect cues in emotional facial expression and emotional prosody was preserved relative to general cognitive ability in those suffering from Alzheimer's disease. In addition, there were no differences found in the recognition of different emotions (happiness, sadness, anger, fear or neutral). This relative sparing of non-verbal emotional processing skills has implications for provision of assessment and interventions based on the creation of effective forms of communication that are less reliant on cognitive ability.

Gene-environment interplay in affect and dementia: emotional modulation of cognitive expression in personal outcomes

A multitude of factors, that either singly, interactively, or sequentially influence the gene-environment interplay in affective and dementia states, include several phases of neurodevelopmental liability in both humans and laboratory animals. Genetic vulnerability for both affective disorders and dementia describes a scenario distinguished by progressive need for concern, particularly in view of the interplay between these areas of ill-health. The contribution of emotional and cognitive expression to personal outcomes, e.g., as a function of affective personality type, a state-dependent analysis of personality characteristics, appears to pervade both the individual's experience of social and physical environments and the performance of cognitive tasks. The role of the endocannabinoids in mental health may offer insights for the psychopharmacology of both cognition and affect. Maladaptive emotional reactions and a defective cognitive ability will contribution to unsatisfactory/maladaptive coping strategies, in turn, leading to further complications of an affective and dysfunctional nature, eventually with a clinical psychopathological outcome. These considerations impinge upon critical issues concerning predisposition and vulnerability. Classical eye-blink conditioning provides a highly established procedure for assessment of defective physiology in models of Alzheimer's dementia. In order to develop a consideration of the array of situations presenting the variation of outcome due to type of affective personality, the role of fear and anxiety and stress in affective states influencing cognition are examined and the critical role of brain circuits mediating emotions influencing cognitive outcomes is discussed.