Implicit learning of affective responses in dementia patients: a face-emotion-association paradigm

The aim of the present study was to develop and evaluate an ecologically valid approach to assess implicit learning of affective responses in dementia patients. We designed a Face-Emotion-Association paradigm (FEA) that allows to quantify the influence of stimuli with positive and negative valence on affective responses. Two pictures of neutral male faces are rated on the dimensions of valence and arousal before and after aversive versus pleasant fictitious biographical information is paired with each of the pictures. At the second measurement time point, memory for pictures and biographical content is tested. The FEA was tested in 21 patients with dementia and 13 healthy controls. Despite severely impaired explicit memory, patients changed valence and arousal ratings according to the biographical content and did not differ in their ratings from the control group. The results demonstrate that our FEA paradigm is a valid instrument to investigate learning of affective responses in dementia patients.