Effects of disease severity on autobiographical memory in semantic dementia revealed in new study
Thursday, April 2, 2009 - 13:35
in Psychology & Sociology
In a study conducted by the Laboratory of Neuropsychology of the Université de Caen Basse-Normandie and published by Elsevier in the April 2009 issue of Cortex, researchers studied for the first time autobiographical memory in a group of semantic dementia (SD) patients according to disease progression. They highlighted that at early stages of the disease those patients could recall recent memories, but also lasting memories from their youth which tend to disappear as dementia evolves. Mechanisms at the root of this autobiographical memory impairment result from storage deficits combined with faulty retrieval strategies.