Understanding the Emotional Changes of Alzheimer’s Disease
To fully understand how Alzheimer's disease impacts an individual's emotions, i.e., what they feel and how they behave based on those feelings, we need to understand what parts of the brain Alzheimer's affects and what parts it does not. That imbalance leads to common emotional symptoms, including depression and apathy, anxiety, fear, and agitation.
Emotions are "housed" in two key areas are the brain, the frontal lobe, and the amygdala. The frontal lobe is the main center for personality, judgment, and emotional control. Damage to the frontal lobe can result in an individual having difficulty controlling their emotional responses, including anger or sadness.
At the same time, as the emotional control area is faltering, one area that is spared from the effects of Alzheimer's disease, the amygdala, is business as usual. It allows the individual to feel a wide range of positive (happiness, joy, love, humor) and negative emotions (fear, anxiety, loneliness) and is home to the "fight-or-flight" response.
It is the ability to feel fear and anxiety, along with an inability to control the emotional response, that creates a potential for exaggerated emotional responses or unexpected upset. What seems to be a calm and low-stress situation may upset your loved one greatly — leaving some loved ones more likely to be irritable or angry (fight) while others may show depression, lethargy, and social isolation (flight.) It is also possible to have a certain emotional response one day and a different reaction to the same situation the next day.
