Refining memory assessment of elderly people with cognitive impairment: Insights from the short-term memory binding test

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) affects temporary memory for bound features more remarkably than for individual features. Such selective impairments manifest from presymptomatic through dementia stages via titration procedures. A recent study suggested that without titration and with high memory load the binding selectivity may disappear in people at risk of AD such as those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). We compared data from two studies on temporary binding which assessed people with MCI and controls using different memory loads (2 or 3 items). Selective binding impairments were found in MCI, but relative to controls, such selectivity was contingent upon memory load (i.e., present with 2 items). Further analysis with MCI people who tested positive to neuroimaging biomarkers (i.e., hippocampal atrophy) confirmed that this specific binding impairments are a feature of prodromal AD. The temporary binding task has been recently suggested by consensus papers as a potential screening tool for AD. The results presented here inform on task properties that can maximise the reliability of this new assessment tool for the detection of memory impairments in prodromal cases of AD.

Profiles of cognitive impairment in the continuum from normal cognition to Alzheimer's clinical syndrome: Contributions of the short‐term memory binding tests

“…[1][2][3][4]15 However, the CD but not the FR task has been used to assess patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) showing good discriminative power. 16,17 MCI has been described as a heterogeneous syndrome, which may represent an intermediate stage between normal cognition and dementia. 18,19 The prevalence of MCI in those older than 65 years ranges from 16% to 20%.…”

Dielectric Constant and Conductivity of Blood Plasma: Possible Novel Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease

“…At an advanced stage of the disease, for example, patients cannot move, communicate, or recognize family members [7]. However, although patients may exhibit symptoms differently, common to all patients is forgetfulness of new information, e.g., dysfunction of short-term memory [8].…”

“…FAD is known to be entirely inherited and extremely rare. The other form is Sporadic Alzheimer's disease (SAD) which may either be (a) early-onset, where symptoms appear before 60 years, or (b) late-onset which is more common and occurs after 60 years of age [8,12]. SAD accounts for approximately 98% of all AD cases and despite the high prevalence, to date, its underlying etiology remains elusive.…”

“…Clinically, the diagnosis of cognitive decline and memory loss associated with AD is problematic as very often, these symptoms only appear at advanced stages of the disease when it is too late to reverse or meaningfully retard its progression [8,13]. Moreover, accurate diagnosis requires experts with sophisticated equipment who are not always available and not affordable for all patients.…”

“…Examples of these inhibitors are Tacrine, Physostigmine, Donepezil, Rivastigmine, and Galantamine [16,17]. Other current drugs including Celastrol (which has antioxidant and antiinflammatory activity), Memantine (an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist), or Selegiline (a monoamine oxidase inhibitor) have been used for AD treatment but still fail to stop the progression of the disease [8,[17][18][19].…”