Remote memory in advanced Alzheimer?s disease

The present study investigated remote memory functioning in advanced dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT). Remote memory measures included the Autobiographical Memory Enquiry (AME) and autobiographical fluency (AF), as well as recognition of remote public events and famous faces. Ten DAT patients were selected with Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) scores less than 15. Compared to healthy controls, DAT patients were impaired on all measures of remote memory, although autobiographical fluency for names was only borderline impaired. There was no clear evidence of a monotonic temporal gradient with the AME; however, both subjects groups showed better preserved early compared to more recent public-event memory. A measure of semantic fluency was correlated with autobiographical and remote public-event memory among the patients only. Overall, results indicate a minimal outline of preserved remote memory in advanced DAT, with evidence of an association between remote memory performance and executive functioning.