Retrograde Amnesia in Dementia: Comparison of HIV-Associated Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, and Huntington's Disease.

Abstract

Remote memory was assessed in persons with HIV-associated dementia (HIV-D), probable Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Huntington's disease (HD) and in healthy controls. The clinical groups were similar in overall dementia severity. Each clinical group exhibited impairments on remote memory tests relative to controls; however, temporally graded memory loss with selective preservation of older information was observed in the AD group but not the HD or HIV-D group. Analysis of cued retrieval indicated a preferential cuing benefit for the HIV-D and HD groups relative to the AD group. The similar pattern of remote memory performance demonstrated by the HIV-D and HD groups is a novel finding and suggests a subcortically mediated retrograde amnesia in HIV-D. The temporally graded pattern and the abnormal cued retrieval performance in the AD group are consistent with a consolidation deficit associated with extrahippocampal (cortical) and hippocampal damage.HIV is known to cause disorders of the central nervous system that may lead to cognitive impairment and, in a minority of cases, dementia (American Academy of Neurology AIDS Task Force, 1991;Grant & Martin, 1994). HIV-associated dementia (HIV-D) occurs in 7% to 14% of patients with AIDS (Grant & Martin, 1994). The clinical neuropsychological profile of persons infected with HIV, whether they exhibit dementia or minor cognitivemotor disorder (American Academy of Neurology AIDS Task Force, 1991), includes impairments in attention-working memory (

Memory for Public Events in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: The Importance of Rehearsal

“…Using this test, a Ribot-type temporal gradient (TG) was found in AD, with better memory for remote compared with recent periods [21,22,34]. Similarly, the same Ribot TG was obtained in AD using tests of famous people [10] or public events only; however, this temporal gradient was very slight [16,17,35], or probably due to items selection since it was found in both AD and control groups [36].…”

Subcortical Profile of Memory Compromise Among HIV-1-Infected Individuals

“…This pattern of subcortical dementia is qualitatively distinct from the processes evident in amnestic patients, who demonstrate commensurate impairments in recall and recognition abilities on neurocognitive testing (Haist, Shimamura, & Squire, 1992). Sadek et al (2004) highlighted the presence of mild memory impairment characterized by decreased learning ability and spared retention of previously learning information in the neuropsychological profiles of HIV patients. In particular, memory deficits are most evident in retrieval and recall, while recognition memory tends to be spared (Delis et al, 1995;Peavy et al, 1994;Reidel et al, 1992;White et al, 1997).…”

HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders

“…7 On performance-based tests of prospective memory, including both time-and event-based tasks, HIV-positive individuals demonstrate mild to moderate impairment with many omission and perseverative errors. 15 With regard to semantic memory, HAD seems associated with mild deficits in memory for famous faces and public events. 16 The impact of HIV infection upon other aspects of declarative memory (e.g.…”