"One of the loneliest things about loving someone with early Alzheimer's is the feeling that any good times the two of you share just don't matter."
Deborah Franklin got that absolutely right in her story for National Public Radio about emotions outlasting memories.
We may feel that way, but here's why we should do what we can, anyway, to keep sharing good times:
Scientists in neuropsychology at the University of Iowa focused on people with damage to the hippocampus, the area of the brain that hangs on to new memories. They suspected that the feelings associated with meaningful events might be captured by a different part of the brain and, therefore, might linger.
Using patients with amnesia, the researchers conducted an experiment using movie clips. They wanted to see if feelings of sadness would last after the memory of a sad movie clip--the scene in "Forrest Gump" where he is crying at the grave of his dead wife, Jenny.
The study participants were visibly moved, some to tears. But a half hour later when researchers quizzed them about the movie, they remembered nothing. One woman, in particular told researchers she was extremely sad but had no idea why.
"Is it the sort of tightness in the gut or in the throat, or the face, somehow cuing her into the fact that she's sad?" graduate student Justin Feinstein said on NPR. "Is it some sort of nonverbal image resonating in her mind, a sort of gloomy image of despair? We don't know. It's an excellent question and one that needs to be followed up on."
As Franklin reports, there is good news.
When researcher repeated the experiment, showing the same people clips from funny movies, including "When Harry Met Sally" or a Bill Cosby special, people were left in good moods--and those happy feelings also outlasted their memories.
That's worth remembering the next time we consider spending time with a loved one who has Alzheimer's.
Listen to the NPR story.
Read the study abstract from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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