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Memory Becomes Less Efficient
Very Early In Alzheimer's Disease
A new study has found that during a very early stage in
Alzheimer's disease, people become less efficient at separating
important information from less important information.
Knowing this, health practitioners may be able to train people in the
early stages of Alzheimer's to remember high-value information more
effectively. Understanding and maintaining important priorities is critical
to functioning. Remembering what's most obvious is central to daily life.
For instance, if you went to the grocery store but left your shopping list
at home, you'd at least want to remember the staple food items such as
bread, milk and eggs. Or, when packing for a trip, you'd want to remember
your wallet and airline tickets more than your slippers or cologne.
The participants in the study were recruited from the Washington University
in St. Louis Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. They included 109 healthy
older adults (average age of almost 75), 41 people with very mild (very early)
Alzheimer's disease (average age of almost 76), 13 people with mild (early)
Alzheimer's (average age of almost 77), and 35 younger adults (all 25 or under,
average age of almost 20.)
The researchers asked participants to study and learn neutral words that were
randomly assigned different point values. When asked to recall the items,
participants were asked to maximize the total value. All participants, even those
with Alzheimer's, recalled more high-value than low-value items. However, the
Alzheimer's groups were significantly less efficient than their healthy age peers
at remembering items according to their value. Essentially, it meant they no
longer maximized learning and memory, which in healthy people are fairly
efficient processes.
The authors speculated that Alzheimer's disease makes it more difficult for
people to encode what they learn in a strategic way. Because encoding is
the first step in long-term memory, this affects their ability to remember things
according to their value. The findings also demonstrate that value-directed
learning stays intact in healthy aging. Older adults might not remember as
much as younger adults, but when healthy, they remain able to distinguish
what's important.
This research suggests the potential for improved memory training. People
with early-stage Alzheimer's might remember important information better by
learning to be more strategic and selective when encoding high-value information,
even though it comes at the expense of neglecting less-important information, the
researchers explained.
Journal reference:
Alan D. Castel, David A. Balota, and David P. McCabe. Memory Efficiency
and the Strategic Control of Attention at Encoding: Impairments of Value-Directed
Remembering in Alzheimer's Disease. Neuropsychology, Vol. 23, No. 3
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