The neutral past: emotional (dys)regulation of autobiographical memory in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia

Background: While affective disturbances are a key symptomatic indicator of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), little is known about how patients process the emotional load of their autobiographical (i.e. personal) memories.Methods: We assessed the interplay of emotional regulation and autobiographical memory by inviting 18 bvFTD and 20 control participants to remember past personal events. For each memory, participants rated its emotional valence then (i.e. when the event has occurred) vs now (i.e. when retrieving the event).Results: Patients with bvFTD described their memories as neutral at both times (p = .85), while control participants rated their memories as more positive during then than during now (p = .013). Autobiographical retrieval triggered fewer emotional words (p < .001) and less specificity (p < .001) in bvFTD patients compared to control participants.Conclusions: The lack of significant differences between the emotional characteristics during then than now in patients with bvFTD (and the flattening of both) may mirror their hampered ability for emotional generation, which may be associated with difficulties in reframing their past experiences to modify and adapt their meaning. The hampered emotional regulation in bvFTD may also be associated with an avoidance strategy and a passive attitude toward the past.

Automated summary

This study investigates how patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) process the emotional load of their autobiographical memories. The results suggest that bvFTD patients express less emotion in their memories and have difficulty regulating their emotions.