Face name matching and memory complaints in Parkinson’s disease

Abstract

ObjectiveMemory impairment is a hallmark cognitive deficit in Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, it remains unclear which processes underlie this deficit in PD. Also, little is known on these patients’ subjective experiences of memory difficulties and their relationship with objective measures. We aim to portray memory deficits in PD by combining objective and subjective memory measures.MethodsFifteen PD patients and 15 controls were assessed with an extended version of the Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (FNAME) and the Memory Failures of Everyday Questionnaire (MFE-28). We also explored the relationship among clinical and cognitive variables.ResultsParticipants with PD presented with more memory complaints. On the FNAME, these patients exhibited lower performance in free recall, as well as in name recognition and matching. Importantly, when controlling for initial learning, group effects disappeared, except for matching. Associative memory therefore was significantly compromised in PD and correlated with subjective memory complaints (SMC).ConclusionOur findings suggest that associative memory may constitute a sensitive measure to detect subtle memory deficits in PD. Moreover, the current study further clarifies the source of memory impairment in PD. Thus, our study highlights the clinical value of including associative memory tests such as the FNAME in PD neuropsychological assessment.

Neurocognitive Impairment and Social Cognition in Parkinson’s Disease Patients

“…The burden that NCI imposes could be mitigated via the timely identification of PD patients harboring SCCs before their progression to MCI and PDD. The face-name associative memory exam (FNAME), which may be a valuable tool for the prompt diagnosis of AD, may also be used to detect subtle memory deficits in PD patients since memory impairment is the hallmark neurocognitive feature of PD [175,176]. The differentiation of NCI from the confounding effect of apathy, depression, and anxiety is also expected to have significant practical implications in the implementation of effective prompt personalized management strategies, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, in PD patients as soon as the diagnosis is made.…”

The influence of working memory and processing speed on other aspects of cognitive functioning in de novo Parkinson's disease: Initial findings from network modelling and graph theory

“…For example, Higginson et al (2003) found that Letter Number Sequencing performance, which is sensitive to working memory and executive functioning difficulties, predicted a large portion (49%) of the variance in delayed free recall in a list‐learning task. Traditionally, it is thought that recognition memory performance, which provides a sensitive of measure of episodic memory storage, is normal in PD (Flowers et al, 1984; Taylor et al, 1990) or that the suppression of it can be explained by inhibitory (Higginson et al, 2003) or encoding deficits (Brønnick et al, 2011; Chiaravalloti et al, 2014; Siquier & Andrés, 2022). Although, a recent review highlights evidence for hippocampus‐mediated deficits in recognition memory in PD (Das et al, 2019).…”