Effect of emotional valence on true and false recognition controlling arousal.

The aim of our experiment was to analyse the effect of the emotional valence (positive, negative, or neutral) on true and false recognition, matching the arousal, frequency, concreteness, and associative strength of the study and recognition words. Fifty younger adults and 46 healthy older adults performed three study tasks (with words of different valence: positive, negative, neutral) and their corresponding recognition tests. Two weeks later, they performed the three recognition tests again. The results show that words with a negative valence produced less true recognition and less false recognition than words with a positive or neutral valence, in both younger and older adults, on the immediate recognition test. This pattern of results was also found in the younger adults on the delayed recognition test, whereas in the older participants, these differences disappeared. Thus, when arousal is controlled, both younger and older adults tend to recognise negative information worse than positive or neutral information, but they also commit fewer errors. Results would suggest that the greater arousal commonly associated with negative stimuli, rather than their own valence, could explain some of the contradictory results found in the literature.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Intervention in Alzheimer's Disease and Its Follow-Up.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease (AD) stands as the prevailing type of dementia, marked by gradual memory loss and cognitive decline. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive method used to regulate cortical brain function and has been explored as a potential treatment for cognitive impairment. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to compare the effects of daily home-based active or sham tDCS on cognitive function in patients with early-stage AD and its follow-up after one month. METHODS: The study involved a randomized, blinded, and controlled-placebo design, with 18 participants enrolled. The primary outcome measures were general cognitive function, immediate, and delayed recall, and executive function. Participants included in the study were randomly assigned to the anodal and sham tDCS groups. Participants were assessed before and after the intervention and one month after the end of treatment. The home-based intervention was applied for 5 consecutive days, daily. RESULTS: The results showed a significant interaction between the active and sham groups; in particular, improvements in MMSE scores, immediate memory and delayed recall were observed at one-month follow-up in the active group. CONCLUSIONS: The positive effects of tDCS on cognitive function in AD patients observed suggest that tDCS may induce long-term neuroplastic changes, leading to sustained improvements in cognitive abilities.

Enhancing Immediate Memory, Potential Learning, and Working Memory with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Healthy Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has emerged as a prevention method or minimizer of the normal cognitive deterioration that occurs during the aging process. tDCS can be used to enhance cognitive functions such as immediate memory, learning, or working memory in healthy subjects. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of two 20-min sessions of anodal transcranial direct stimulation on immediate memory, learning potential, and working memory in healthy older adults. METHODS: A randomized, single-blind, repeated-measures, sham-controlled design was used. The sample is made up of 31 healthy older adults, of whom 16 were in the stimulation group and 15 were in the sham group. The anode was placed on position F7, coinciding with the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region, and the cathode was placed on Fp2, the right supraorbital area (rSO). RESULTS: When comparing the results of the treatment group and the sham group, differences were observed in working memory and learning potential; however, no differences in immediate memory were found. CONCLUSION: The results showed that tDCS is a non-invasive and safe tool to enhance cognitive processes in healthy older adults interested in maintaining some cognitive function.

Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation in mild neurocognitive disorder due to possible Alzheimer's disease. A randomised, single-blind, controlled-placebo study.

Introduction: Mild neurocognitive disorder (mNCD), a pre-dementia stage close to Mild Cognitive Impairment, shows a progressive and constant decline in the memory domain. Of the non-pharmacological therapeutic interventions that may help to decelerate the neurodegenerative progress, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) shows beneficial effects on the learning curve, immediate recall, immediate verbal memory and executive functions. The purpose of this research was to study the effect of tDCS on general cognition, immediate and delayed memory and executive functions by comparing an active group with a placebo group of mNCD patients. Methods: Participants were 33 mNCD due to possible AD, randomly assigned to two groups: 17 active tDCS and 16 placebo tDCS. Ten sessions of tDCS were conducted over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Several neuropsychological scales were administered to assess the primary outcome measures of general cognitive function, immediate and delayed memory and learning ability, whereas the secondary outcome measures included executive function tests. All participants were evaluated at baseline and at the end of the intervention. Mixed ANOVAs were performed. Results: Significant effects were obtained on general cognitive function, immediate and delayed memory and learning ability, with increases in scores in the active tDCS group. However, there were no significant effects on executive function performance. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated the effectiveness of tDCS in an active tDCS group, compared to a placebo group, in improving general cognition and immediate and delayed memory, as previous studies found. Taken together, our data suggest that tDCS is a simple, painless, reproducible and easy technique that is useful for treating cognitive alterations found in neurodegenerative diseases.

A Longitudinal Study of Episodic and Semantic Autobiographical Memory in aMCI and Alzheimer's Disease Patients.

BACKGROUND: The main objective of this study was to analyze the evolution of autobiographical memory (both episodic and semantic) in patients with mild cognitive impairment, patients with Alzheimer's disease, and a healthy control group. We compared these groups at two time points: first, at baseline, and in a follow-up after 18 months. METHOD: Twenty-six healthy older adults, 17 patients with mild amnestic cognitive impairment, and 16 patients with Alzheimer's disease, matched on age and educational level, were evaluated at both time points with the Autobiographical Memory Interview. RESULTS: The results showed significant longitudinal deterioration in episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in patients with mild cognitive impairment and in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but not in healthy older adults. CONCLUSIONS: The deterioration of episodic and semantic autobiographical memory in AD is confirmed; however, although the episodic was impaired in aMCI, a pattern that evolved toward deterioration over a period of eighteen months was observed for the semantic autobiographical memory.

Effectiveness of tDCS at Improving Recognition and Reducing False Memories in Older Adults.

BACKGROUND: False memories tend to increase in healthy and pathological aging, and their reduction could be useful in improving cognitive functioning. The objective of this study was to use an active-placebo method to verify whether the application of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improved true recognition and reduced false memories in healthy older people. METHOD: Participants were 29 healthy older adults (65-78 years old) that were assigned to either an active or a placebo group; the active group received anodal stimulation at 2 mA for 20 min over F7. An experimental task was used to estimate true and false recognition. The procedure took place in two sessions on two consecutive days. RESULTS: True recognition showed a significant main effect of sessions (p < 0.01), indicating an increase from before treatment to after it. False recognition showed a significant main effect of sessions (p < 0.01), indicating a decrease from before treatment to after it and a significant session × group interaction (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our results show that tDCS was an effective tool for increasing true recognition and reducing false recognition in healthy older people, and suggest that stimulation improved recall by increasing the number of items a participant could recall and reducing the number of memory errors.

Phonological false recognition, recollection, and familiarity in healthy aging and alzheimer's disease / Falso reconocimiento fonológico, recolección y familiaridad en el envejecimiento y la enfermedad de Alzheimer

BACKGROUND: Thirty healthy older people, 20 Alzheimer's disease patients (matched on age and education level) and 33 young people, participated in an experiment to implicitly induce phonological false memories, allowing us to obtain estimates of their recollection, familiarity, and false recognition. METHOD: In the study task, words were selected which used half of the letters in the alphabet. In the recognition test, there were three types of non-studied new words: critical lures using letters from the same half of the alphabet as the study task words; distractors formed using the unused half of the alphabet, and distractors formed using all the letters in the alphabet. RESULTS: Results showed that: (a) in all the samples, critical lures produced more false recognitions than distractors composed of all the letters in the alphabet or distractors composed of the letters not used in the study, showing a significant phonological false recognition effect; (b) both recollection and familiarity declined with age and dementia; (c) phonological false recognition increased with age and Alzheimer's disease. CONCLUSIONS: These results seem to support the idea that estimates of recollection, familiarity, and phonological false recognition can be used as early markers of cognitive impairment

ANTECEDENTES: treinta personas mayores sanas, 20 pacientes con enfermedad de Alzheimer (igualados en edad y nivel educativo) y 33 jóvenes participaron en un experimento para inducirles implícitamente falsas memorias fonológicas, permiténdonos obtener sus estimaciones de recolección, familiaridad y falso reconocimiento. MÉTODO: en la tarea de estudio las palabras estaban formadas por una mitad de las letras del alfabeto. En el test de reconocimiento había tres tipos de palabras nuevas no estudiadas: palabras críticas formadas por las mismas letras de la tarea de estudio, distractores formados por la otra mitad de letras no utilizadas en la tarea de estudio y distractores formados por todas las letras del alfabeto. RESULTADOS: los resultados mostraron que: (a) en las tres muestras las palabras críticas producían más falsos reconocimientos que en ambos tipos de distractores, mostrando un claro efecto significativo de falso reconocimiento fonológico; (b) tanto la recolección como la familiaridad disminuían durante el envejecimiento y la enfermedad de Alzheimer; (c) el falso reconocimiento fonológico aumentaba durante el envejecimiento y la enfermedad de Alzheimer. CONCLUSIONES: nuestros resultados apoyan la idea de que las estimaciones de recolección, familiaridad y falso reconocimiento fonológico pueden ser utililizadas como marcadores tempranos de deterioro cognitivo

Phonological false recognition, recollection, and familiarity in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Thirty healthy older people, 20 Alzheimer's disease patients (matched on age and education level) and 33 young people, participated in an experiment to implicitly induce phonological false memories, allowing us to obtain estimates of their recollection, familiarity, and false recognition. METHOD: In the study task, words were selected which used half of the letters in the alphabet. In the recognition test, there were three types of non-studied new words: critical lures using letters from the same half of the alphabet as the study task words; distractors formed using the unused half of the alphabet, and distractors formed using all the letters in the alphabet. RESULTS: Results showed that: (a) in all the samples, critical lures produced more false recognitions than distractors composed of all the letters in the alphabet or distractors composed of the letters not used in the study, showing a significant phonological false recognition effect; (b) both recollection and familiarity declined with age and dementia; (c) phonological false recognition increased with age and Alzheimer's disease. CONCLUSIONS: These results seem to support the idea that estimates of recollection, familiarity, and phonological false recognition can be used as early markers of cognitive impairment.

Type of memory and emotional valence in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment, and alzheimer's disease / Tipo de memoria y valencia emocional en adultos mayores sanos, deterioro cognitivo leve y enfermedad de Alzheimer

Background: Autobiographical memory (AM) presents components related to the type of memory and may present an associated emotional valence. Comparing healthy older adults, adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD) gives contradictory results. We examined AM in these groups to analyze differences and provide information that would contribute to the understanding of AM and associated emotional deficits in patients. Method: 31 AD, 32 MCI, and 32 healthy older adults were evaluated using the Autobiographical Memory Test. Taking the number of memories elicited in each category as a dependent variable, an ANOVA of three groups × 3 types of valence was applied (positive, negative, neutral, intrasubject), and another ANOVA of 3 groups × 3 types of memory (specific, general, vague, intrasubject). Results: specific-type responses are reduced with the progression of the pathology and in addition healthy subjects have a positive valence while AD presents a mainly neutral valence. Conclusions: Cognitive problems associated with aging tend to affect the highest level of AM specificity. Healthy subjects and MCI have memories with an emotional valence, whereas the AD group has a significant deterioration in these memories

Antecedentes: la memoria autobiográfica (MA) presenta componentes relacionados con el tipo de recuerdo y una valencia emocional asociada a este. Los resultados al comparar adultos mayores sanos, deterioro cognitivo leve (DCL) y enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA) son contradictorios. Se evaluó la MA de estos grupos para analizar diferencias y ofrecer información que contribuya a la comprensión de la MA y los déficits emocionales asociados a los pacientes. Método: 31 AD, 32 MCI y 32 adultos mayores sanos fueron evaluados con el Test de Memoria Autobiográfica. Tomando como variable dependiente el número de memorias elicitadas en cada categoría se aplicó un ANOVA de tres grupos × 3 tipos de valencia (positiva, negativa, neutra; intrasujeto), y otro ANOVA de 3 grupos × 3 tipos de recuerdo (específico, general, vago; intrasujeto). Resultados: las respuestas específicas se reducen con la progresión de la patología y los sanos presentan mayor recuerdo positivo y los EA principalmente valencias neutras. Conclusiones: los problemas cognitivos asociados con el envejecimiento tienden a afectar el nivel más alto de especificidad de la MA. Los sujetos sanos y DCL presentan recuerdos con valencia emocional, mientras que los EA tiene un deterioro significativo en los recuerdos y su asociación a las emociones

Executive Functions, Episodic Autobiographical Memory, Problem-Solving Capacity, and Depression Proposal for a Structural Equations Model.

The executive functions play an important role in storing and recovering autobiographical memories, especially episodic memories. These types of memories provide information about solutions and experiences from the past that can be utilized as examples in the present when seeking solutions to any problem. In addition, a close relationship between depression and the executive functions has been widely recognized. This study aims to elaborate a structural equations model that empirically supports the relationships among the executive functions, episodic autobiographical memory, and the adaptive capacity to solve problems, taking into account the depressed mood state. In all, 32 healthy elderly people, 32 patients with Parkinson disease, 32 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and 32 with Alzheimer disease were evaluated. Structural equation models were estimated to test the effects among the constructs. The final model shows adequate fit indexes, thus revealing that an individual's problem-solving capacity will depend on the capacity to access the episodic autobiographical memory, which in turn will depend on the maintenance of executive functioning. In a parallel way, the mood state, and specifically depression, will play a modulator role because when there is depressive symptomatology, some capacities that depend on executive control can be diminished.

Type of memory and emotional valence in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease.

BACKGROUND: Autobiographical memory (AM) presents components related to the type of memory and may present an associated emotional valence. Comparing healthy older adults, adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and adults with Alzheimer's disease (AD) gives contradictory results. We examined AM in these groups to analyze differences and provide information that would contribute to the understanding of AM and associated emotional deficits in patients. METHOD: 31 AD, 32 MCI, and 32 healthy older adults were evaluated using the Autobiographical Memory Test. Taking the number of memories elicited in each category as a dependent variable, an ANOVA of three groups x 3 types of valence was applied (positive, negative, neutral, intrasubject), and another ANOVA of 3 groups x 3 types of memory (specific, general, vague, intrasubject). RESULTS: Specific-type responses are reduced with the progression of the pathology and in addition healthy subjects have a positive valence while AD presents a mainly neutral valence. CONCLUSIONS: Cognitive problems associated with aging tend to affect the highest level of AM specificity. Healthy subjects and MCI have memories with an emotional valence, whereas the AD group has a significant deterioration in these memories.

Phonological false recognition produced by bottom-up automatic activation in young and older people.

Two experiments explored a new procedure to implicitly induce phonological false memories in young and older people. On the study tasks, half of the words were formed from half of the letters in the alphabet, whereas the remaining words were formed from all the letters in the alphabet. On the recognition tests, there were three types of non-studied new words: critical lures formed from the same half of the letters as the studied words; distractors formed from the other half of the letters not used, and distractors formed from all the letters in the alphabet. In both experiments, the results showed that, in both young and older people, critical lures produced more false recognitions than distractors composed of all the letters in the alphabet, which, in turn, produced more false alarms than distractors composed of the letters not used during the study. These results support the predictions of the activation/monitoring models, which assume that false memories are partly due to activation spreading from items (semantically or phonologically) related to the critical words.

Are semantic and episodic autobiographical memories influenced by the life period remembered? Comparison of young and older adults.

Autobiographical memory consists of a person's personal history and contributes to building a feeling of identity and continuity. Aging affects episodic autobiographical memory negatively, whereas semantic autobiographical memory is preserved or even enhanced in older adults. The study aim was to analyze whether these hypotheses continue to find support, or if there are differences when these memories are analyzed according to the components of life cycle retrieval. The sample was composed of 151 participants: 78 young and 73 older adults. Subjects were evaluated with the Autobiographical Memory Interview. A mixed ANOVA was performed for semantic memory with two groups and three life periods (childhood, youth-adulthood, and recent life). The main group effect was not significant, but the effects of the life period and the life period × group interaction were significant. When analyzing episodic memory, the main effects of the life period and group were significant, but their interaction was not. Young people have better episodic memory than older adults, and they show a similar episodic memory pattern during the three life periods evaluated. The semantic memory of the older adults is preserved, and the reminiscence bump and recent life scores are similar in both groups.

Wellbeing, resilience, and coping: Are there differences between healthy older adults, adults with mild cognitive impairment, and adults with Alzheimer-type dementia?

The changes that occur with cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease could affect psychological aspects unrelated to memory. The purpose of this study is to compare 32 healthy older adults, 31 amnestic mild cognitively impaired (aMCI) adults, and 32 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD), in order to determine whether there are differences in their psychological wellbeing, resilience, and coping strategies. Unifactorial MANOVAS and ANOVAS were performed to analyze the between-group differences. The results reveal that the AD group showed lower levels of resilience and orientation toward problem-solving and greater use of religious strategies. In addition, they had significantly lower wellbeing scores than the other groups. The worsening of the pathology impedes the capacity for adaptation and resilience and the application of strategies oriented toward the problem, and it increases the application of strategies based on magical thinking. Moreover, it also produces a reduction in wellbeing.

Motivated forgetting reduces veridical memories but slightly increases false memories in both young and healthy older people.

The aim of the current study is to examine the effects of motivated forgetting and aging on true and false memory. Sixty young and 54 healthy older adults were instructed to study two lists of 18 words each. Each list was composed of three sets of six words associated with three non-presented critical words. After studying list 1, half of the participants received the instruction to forget List 1, whereas the other half received the instruction to remember List 1. Next, all the subjects studied list 2; finally, they were asked to remember the words studied in both lists. The results showed that when participants intended to forget the studied List 1, they were less likely to recall the studied words, but more likely to intrude the critical words. That is, we can intentionally forget something but this can also entail the intrusion of some related false memories.

Effects of Stimuli Repetition and Age in False Recognition.

The aim of the current study is to examine the effects of stimuli repetition and age in false recognition using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott experimental paradigm. Two matched samples of 32 young adults and 32 healthy older adults studied 10 lists of six words associated with three non-presented critical words. On half of the lists, the words were presented once, and on the other five lists, the words were presented three times, always following a same sequential order. After each study list, participants performed a self-paced recognition test containing 12 words: the 6 studied words and 6 other non-studied words (the 3 critical words and 3 distractors). The results show that false recognition increases with age and declines in both samples with repetitions (although more in the young adults than in the older people). Results are discussed in relation to the dual-process theories of (false) memory.

The role of self-referencing in true and false recognition in young people and healthy older people / El papel del efecto de auto-referencia sobre el verdadero y falso reconocimiento en jóvenes y mayores sanos

Background: Given the uneven results about the role self-referencing plays in false recognition, we planned an experiment that would allow us to analyze whether self-referencing affects false recognition, and its relationship with healthy aging. Method: A sample of healthy older people (n = 30) and another sample of young people (n = 38) rated whether 40 personality-trait adjectives (20 with a positive valence and 20 with a negative valence) described them or not (self-referencing condition). They then took a recognition test of these adjectives along with 40 other new adjectives. Next, they rated whether 40 other different adjectives described a third person or not (other-referencing condition), and then performed another similar recognition test. These two conditions were counter-balanced across participants. Results: The results clearly showed that self-referencing produces both an increase in true recognition and a decrease in false recognition in both samples. Conclusions: Our results support the idea that self-referencing reduces false recognition by using conscious monitoring strategies, and that self-referencing is a suitable cognitive method for enhancing older individuals’ impaired memory (AU)

Antecedentes: dados los resultados contradictorios acerca del papel que el efecto de auto-referencia ejerce sobre el falso reconocimiento, diseñamos un experimento para analizar si dicho efecto afecta al falso reconocimiento y su relación con el envejecimiento. Método: una muestra de personas mayores sanas (n = 30) y otra muestra de personas jóvenes (n = 38) valoraron si 40 adjetivos sobre rasgos de personalidad (20 de ellos con valencia positiva y 20 con valencia negativa) los describían o no (condición de auto-referencia). A continuación llevaron a cabo una tarea de reconocimiento sobre dichos 40 adjetivos junto con otras 40 adjetivos nuevos. Después valoraron otros 40 adjetivos en relación a una tercera persona (condición de otra-referencia), seguida de su correspondiente test de reconocimiento. Estas dos condiciones se contrabalanceron entre participantes. Resultados: los resultados mostraron claramente que la condición de autoreferencia produce tanto un incremento en el reconocimiento correcto como un decremento en el falso reconocimiento en ambas muestras. Conclusiones: nuestros resultados apoyan la idea de que el efecto de autoreferencia reduce el falso reconocimiento mediante el uso de estrategias conscientes de monitorización, y que el método de autoreferenciar es una estrategia cognitiva eficiente para mejorar la memoria de las personas mayores (AU)

The role of self-referencing in true and false recognition in young people and healthy older people.

BACKGROUND: Given the uneven results about the role self-referencing plays in false recognition, we planned an experiment that would allow us to analyze whether self-referencing affects false recognition, and its relationship with healthy aging. METHOD: A sample of healthy older people (n = 30) and another sample of young people (n = 38) rated whether 40 personality-trait adjectives (20 with a positive valence and 20 with a negative valence) described them or not (self-referencing condition). They then took a recognition test of these adjectives along with 40 other new adjectives. Next, they rated whether 40 other different adjectives described a third person or not (other-referencing condition), and then performed another similar recognition test. These two conditions were counter-balanced across participants. RESULTS: The results clearly showed that self-referencing produces both an increase in true recognition and a decrease in false recognition in both samples. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support the idea that self-referencing reduces false recognition by using conscious monitoring strategies, and that self-referencing is a suitable cognitive method for enhancing older individuals’ impaired memory.

The Role of Recollection and Familiarity in Nondemented Parkinson's Patients.

The aim of the current study was to examine if recollection and familiarity decline in nondemented Parkinson's patients. To do so we compared a sample of older people with Parkinson's disease (n = 32) to a control sample of healthy older people (n = 32) on an associative recognition task in which we manipulated the repetition of the pairs during the study phase (half of the pairs were presented once and half twice) to obtain corrected estimates of recollection, familiarity, and false recognition based on the logic of the process-dissociation procedure. The results clearly show that recollection is impaired but familiarity is preserved in nondemented Parkinson's patients. The results show that memory for pairs in Parkinson's patients relies largely on the familiarity of each item and not on a precise recollection of associative information, supporting the idea that recollection-based monitoring processes are impaired in these patients.

An emotional Stroop task with faces and words. A comparison of young and older adults.

ANTECEDENTS: Given the contradictions of previous studies on the changes in attentional responses produced in aging a Stroop emotional task was proposed to compare young and older adults to words or faces with an emotional valence. METHOD: The words happy or sad were superimposed on faces that express the emotion of happiness or sadness. The emotion expressed by the word and the face could agree or not (cued and uncued trials, respectively). 85 young and 66 healthy older adults had to identify both faces and words separately, and the interference between the two types of stimuli was examined. RESULTS: An interference effect was observed for both types of stimuli in both groups. There was more interference on positive faces and words than on negative stimuli. CONCLUSIONS: Older adults had more difficulty than younger in focusing on positive uncued trials, whereas there was no difference across samples on negative uncued trials.