TY - JOUR

T1 - Impairment of Episodic-Specific Autobiographical Memory in Individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline and in Patients with Prodromal or Mild Alzheimer's Disease

AU - Bruus, Anna E.

AU - Waldemar, Gunhild

AU - Vogel, Asmus

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 - IOS Press. All rights reserved.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Background: Autobiographical memory (AM) is a personal form of memory that becomes impaired in the early, clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the 'preclinical' phase of AD, neuropathological hallmarks are present (especially in a brain network underpinning AM), but performance on standardized neuropsychological tests is normal. Even so, some patients have subjective cognitive decline (SCD). Objective: The aim was to 1) investigate AM performance on two tests with different approaches in SCD, and in prodromal and mild AD, and 2) examine the association between the AM tests. Methods: We included 17 SCD patients with heightened risk of AD, 17 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients, 17 patients with mild dementia due to AD, and 30 healthy controls. Patients were diagnosed according to international criteria, and all participants had MMSE scores≥24. AM was assessed using the Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview-Short Form (CAMI-SF) and the Three Events Test. These tests measure the production of contextual details. Results: Significant group effects were found for the Three Events Test and the CAMI-SF. All patient groups produced significantly fewer contextual details than the controls on the Three Events Test. On CAMI-SF, the aMCI and mild AD groups were able to answer fewer questions or gave significantly less detailed answers than the other groups. The SCD patients performed below the controls on CAMI-SF, but the difference was not significant. Conclusion: AM may be impaired in very early AD, even in the phases where standardized episodic memory tests show no decline.

AB - Background: Autobiographical memory (AM) is a personal form of memory that becomes impaired in the early, clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the 'preclinical' phase of AD, neuropathological hallmarks are present (especially in a brain network underpinning AM), but performance on standardized neuropsychological tests is normal. Even so, some patients have subjective cognitive decline (SCD). Objective: The aim was to 1) investigate AM performance on two tests with different approaches in SCD, and in prodromal and mild AD, and 2) examine the association between the AM tests. Methods: We included 17 SCD patients with heightened risk of AD, 17 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients, 17 patients with mild dementia due to AD, and 30 healthy controls. Patients were diagnosed according to international criteria, and all participants had MMSE scores≥24. AM was assessed using the Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview-Short Form (CAMI-SF) and the Three Events Test. These tests measure the production of contextual details. Results: Significant group effects were found for the Three Events Test and the CAMI-SF. All patient groups produced significantly fewer contextual details than the controls on the Three Events Test. On CAMI-SF, the aMCI and mild AD groups were able to answer fewer questions or gave significantly less detailed answers than the other groups. The SCD patients performed below the controls on CAMI-SF, but the difference was not significant. Conclusion: AM may be impaired in very early AD, even in the phases where standardized episodic memory tests show no decline.

KW - Alzheimer's disease

KW - autobiographical memory

KW - dementia

KW - memory disorder

KW - mild cognitive impairment

KW - subjective cognitive decline

U2 - 10.3233/JAD-215113

DO - 10.3233/JAD-215113

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34690146

AN - SCOPUS:85121332051

VL - 84

SP - 1485

EP - 1496

JO - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease

JF - Journal of Alzheimer's Disease

SN - 1387-2877

IS - 4

ER -