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[P‐033]: Impaired reverse helix recall: A sign of mild cognitive impairment
Author(s) -
Östberg Per,
Sven-Erik Faerneus,
Nenad Bogdanovic
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2005.06.095
Subject(s) - procedural memory , recall , psychology , cognition , episodic memory , dementia , cognitive psychology , memory impairment , semantic memory , cognitive impairment , disease , audiology , neuroscience , medicine , pathology
Background: “Mild cognitive impairment” refers to a symptomatic stage of neurodegenerative disease that precedes dementia. It is associated with atrophy of the medial temporal lobe. Declarative memory depends on this region but not procedural memory. Tests that contrast procedural and declarative memory might therefore aid the detection of early stages of cognitive decline. Objective(s): To investigate if language based declarative memory is impaired in early Alzheimer’s disease.Methods:We chose a helix, i.e. a non-branching word hierarchy with hybrid linear/cyclical ordering, as target for procedural vs. declarative recall. Participants were drawn from three diagnostic categories: Subjective (non-objective) cognitive impairment, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. These categories reflected three levels of cognitive functioning and three inferred anatomical stages of neurodegeneration. Conclusions: On average, participants with mild cognitive impairment were selectively impaired on reverse helix recall, whereas performance on the same task in Alzheimer’s disease was devastated. These findings provide evidence for a deficit in non-episodic, language-based declarative memory in mild cognitive impairment.