Is emotional attention a behavioral marker of amygdala alterations in alzheimer’s disease ?

International audienceThe amygdala, a limbic area crucial in potentiating emotional processing, is atrophied early in Alzheimer’s disease(AD). Yet, the consequences of amygdala alterations on theprocessing of emotional information in patients with ADare still scarcely investigated. Recent behavioral and neuroimaging data suggest that emotional attention may be apromising way of investigation. In this study, we were interested in assessing the link between amygdala structuraland functional alterations and automatic emotional attention toward salient features of faces. Based on previous reports in patients with amygdala lesions, we also investigated the existence of compensatory processes relying onfrontal networks and allowing the preservation of morecontrolled emotional attention mechanisms. Preliminaryresults will be discussed