Early Detection of Memory Impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Neurocognitive Perspective on Assessment

Lowndes, Georgia; Savage, Greg

doi:10.1007/s11065-007-9032-z

Cited by 46 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 122 publications

(127 reference statements)

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“…In AD patients, several studies have shown an impairment of the binding processes in the verbal [20] and visual short-term memory [4,21]. This corroborates with the literature, which suggests that during the course of the disease, deficits in associative memory are more pronounced than those in nonassociative memory [22]. …”

Section: Context Memory Impairment In Adsupporting

confidence: 83%

Context Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

Haj¹,

Kessels²

2013

Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord Extra

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Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a gradual loss of memory. Specifically, context aspects of memory are impaired in AD. Our review sheds light on the neurocognitive mechanisms of this memory component that forms the core of episodic memory function. Summary: Context recall, an element of episodic memory, refers to remembering the context in which an event has occurred, such as from whom or to whom information has been transmitted. Key Messages: Our review raises crucial questions. For example, (1) which context element is more prone to being forgotten in the disease? (2) How do AD patients fail to bind context features together? (3) May distinctiveness heuristic or decisions based on metacognitive expectations improve context retrieval in these patients? (4) How does cueing at retrieval enhance reinstating of encoding context in AD? By addressing these questions, our work contributes to the understanding of the memory deficits in AD.

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Section: Context Memory Impairment In Adsupporting

confidence: 83%

Context Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

Haj¹,

Kessels²

2013

Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord Extra

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“…Finally, we also administered the verbal paired associates test (VPA I) from the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (Lezak, 1995). Though it is a test of relational memory, and as such is affected by hippocampal lesions, there may be components that are affected by damage to other regions of MTL and lateral temporal cortex (for discussion see Lowndes and Savage, 2007). We predict the strongest correlation to be between the number of details provided in descriptions of walking routes and the tabletop spatial memory test, because this test is particularly sensitive to right hippocampal function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Detailed descriptions of routes traveled, but not map‐like knowledge, correlates with tests of hippocampal function in older adults

2010

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We examined hippocampal contribution to remote spatial memory in older adults by correlating their performance on tests sensitive to hippocampal damage with their description of routes they traversed many times or only once, and with their map-like knowledge of downtown Toronto. We found that performance on table-top tests of spatial location (Smith and Milner (1981) Neuropsychologia 19:781-793) and on paired-associate learning, and the number of Internal Details on the Autobiographical Interview (Levine et al., (2002) Psychol Aging 17:677-689), all correlated significantly with the number and type of perceptual details used in describing routes one has traversed, but not with map-like knowledge of Toronto. No significant correlations were found with performance on tests of frontal function (WCST, phonemic fluency, and backward digit span). We conclude that the hippocampus is implicated in vivid re-experiencing of a familiar route, but not with map-like knowledge of a large-scale environment. These findings are interpreted as consistent with Multiple Trace Theory's prediction that it is the degree of detail of a retrieved memory that is crucially dependent on the hippocampus.

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“…As Jack et al [6] correctly state, the earliest and core symptom of AD is an episodic memory deficit, which exacerbates during the preclinical period [7], and is accompanied by increasingly severe disturbances in language, attention, executive functions, and mood in later phases of the disease [8,9]. More specifically, AD is characterized by an impairment in delayed recall, and several studies have shown that this impairment is a sensitive and partly specific feature of patients converting from MCI to AD [10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Patients with amnesic cognitive impairment are more likely to represent an early stage of AD than patients with non-amnesic cognitive impairment [14]. Therefore, the earliest phase of AD neuropsychological testing should be focused on learning tests and on recall of learned information after a delay or following interfering materials [7,15,16]. But the few studies, that have been published up to now on the correlation between CSF markers and cognitive decline, often relied on cognitive tests that are rather insufficient for this purpose, like the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE) [17][18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlation between Cognitive Impairment and CSF Biomarkers in Amnesic MCI, non-Amnesic MCI, and Alzheimer's Disease

Haldenwanger

Eling

Kastrup

et al. 2010

JAD

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Abstract. Decreased delayed recall, decreased amyloid-β peptides (Aβ1−42), and increased tau protein concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are generally regarded to be valid neuropsychological and biological markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous studies failed to demonstrate clear-cut correlations between neuropsychological impairment and CSF markers. In this study we test recent models of disease progression, that propose that changes in CSF biomarkers already reach a plateau in a preclinical phase, before cognitive decline begins, that is, even before MCI can be diagnosed. We recruited 73 patients with probable AD (n = 36) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (amnesic MCI = 25; non-amnesic MCI = 12). We used the CERAD-NP, a widely used neuropsychological battery with norms for different age and education groups, and additional neuropsychological tests for assessing the cognitive profile of these patient groups. We found a significant correlation between Aβ1−42 in the CSF and memory performance for amnesic MCI patients, but not for non-amnesic MCI and AD patients. All other correlations between cognitive tasks and Aβ1−42 were not significant. Tau protein concentration in the CSF was not correlated with any neuropsychological marker in any of the patients groups. We conclude that the decrease of Aβ1−42 in the CSF mirrors disease progression during the early stages up into AD and therefore is not restricted to the preclinical phase. The decrease of Aβ1−42 reaches a plateau only in the full blown demented syndrome and further functional disease progression is then related to neurodegeneration without further reduction of Aβ1−42 in the CSF.

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Early Detection of Memory Impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Neurocognitive Perspective on Assessment

Cited by 46 publications

References 122 publications

Context Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

Context Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

Detailed descriptions of routes traveled, but not map‐like knowledge, correlates with tests of hippocampal function in older adults

Correlation between Cognitive Impairment and CSF Biomarkers in Amnesic MCI, non-Amnesic MCI, and Alzheimer's Disease

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