Recognition memory in Alzheimer's disease: A demonstration of a remarkable memory capacity in Alzheimer's disease

• Published in: Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 6 - 9
• Main Authors: KARLSSON, Thomas, JOHANSSON, Inez, ADOLFSSON, Rolf, NILSSON, Lars-Göran, DUBUC, Severine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel Karger 2003; S. Karger AG
• Subjects: Alzheimer Disease - psychology; Alzheimer's disease; Biological and medical sciences; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Memory; Memory capacity; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Recognition; Recognition (Psychology); SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP; SOCIAL SCIENCES; Task Performance and Analysis; Human; Nervous system diseases; Recognition memory; Alzheimer disease; Memory; Exploration; Psychometrics; Cognition; Cerebral disorder; Central nervous system disease; Memory capacity; Degenerative disease; Alzheimer's disease; Recognition
• ISSN: 1420-8008; 1421-9824; 1421-9824
• DOI: 10.1159/000066671

A compelling feature of human memory is its striking capacity. Under certain circumstances, subjects can remember large amounts of information even with brief exposure at study. This investigation shows that this ability is preserved even in severely impaired Alzheimer's disease patients, and this holds implications for the clinical management of amnesic patients. To this date, demonstrations of preserved learning and memory capacity in Alzheimer's disease and amnesia have been confined to implicit memory tasks. Since the present results were obtained in an explicit memory task, the finding also holds implications for the understanding of amnesia.