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Do Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Benefit From Prior-Knowledge in Associative Recognition Memory?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

Emma Delhaye ,
Adrien Folville ,
Isabelle Simoes Loureiro ,
Laurent Lefebvre ,
Eric Salmon  and
Christine Bastin
Emma Delhaye*
Affiliation:
GIGA-CRC In-Vivo Imaging, University of Liege, Belgium
Adrien Folville
Affiliation:
GIGA-CRC In-Vivo Imaging, University of Liege, Belgium
Isabelle Simoes Loureiro
Affiliation:
Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology Department, University of Mons, Belgium
Laurent Lefebvre
Affiliation:
Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology Department, University of Mons, Belgium
Eric Salmon
Affiliation:
GIGA-CRC In-Vivo Imaging, University of Liege, Belgium Memory clinic, CHU Liège, University of Liège, Belgium
Christine Bastin
Affiliation:
GIGA-CRC In-Vivo Imaging, University of Liege, Belgium
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to: Emma Delhaye, Bât. B30, GIGA-CRC In-Vivo Imaging, Allée du 6 Août 8, 4000 Liège 1, Belgium. E-mail: emma.delhaye@uliege.be
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Abstract

Objectives: Although the influence of prior knowledge on associative memory in healthy aging has received great attention, it has never been studied in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study aimed at assessing whether AD patients could benefit from prior knowledge in associative memory and whether such benefit would be related to the integrity of their semantic memory. Methods: Twenty-one AD patients and 21 healthy older adults took part in an associative memory task using semantically related and unrelated word pairs and were also submitted to an evaluation of their semantic memory. Results: While participants of both groups benefited from semantic relatedness in associative discrimination, related pairs recognition was significantly predicted by semantic memory integrity in healthy older adults only. Conclusions: We suggest that patients benefitted from semantic knowledge to improve their performance in the associative memory task, but that such performance is not related to semantic knowledge integrity evaluation measures because the two tasks differ in the way semantic information is accessed: in an automatic manner for the associative memory task, with automatic processes thought to be relatively preserved in AD, and in a controlled manner for the semantic knowledge evaluation, with controlled processes thought to be impaired in AD. (JINS, 2019, 25, 443–452)

Keywords

Episodic memoryAssociative memorySemantic memoryPrior knowledgeAlzheimer’s diseaseAging
Type
Regular Research
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , April 2019 , pp. 443 - 452
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society, 2019. 

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Footnotes

*

These authors contributed equally

References

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