Alzheimer Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia, Memory
Conditions
Keywords
Autobiographical memory, Alzheimer's disease, with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia
Brief summary
Autobiographical memory is diminished in patients with Alzheimer's Disease and those with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia, and research has focused on the hampered ability of patients in retrieving specific memories. However, this study proposes a detailed methodology to provide a qualitative analysis of autobiographical specificity.
Detailed description
Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and those with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia will be invited to retrieve autobiographical memories. Memories will be analyzed and categorized into specific, categoric, extended, or semantic autobiographical retrieval.
Interventions
OTHERAutobiographical reminder
The analysis of the specificity of Autobiographical Recall will be done through the following scale, developed for the study: * 6 points for a recall involving a single personal event located in space AND time (e.g.,"I remember when my parents took me to the sea for the first time..in 1962..in Dunkerque") * 5 points for a recall involving a single personal event located in space OR time ("I remember when my parents first took me to the sea...in 1962") * 4 points for a recall involving a single personal event but without spatial/temporal details ("I remember when my parents took me to the sea for the first time") * 3 points for a recall involving a general personal event but located in space AND time ("we used to go to Dunkerque in the summer") * 2 points for a recall involving a general personal event but located in space OR time ("we used to go to Dunkerque") * 1 point for a recall involving a general personal event without spatial/temporal details ("we used to go on vacation")
Sponsors
Nantes University Hospital
Study design
Observational model
CASE_ONLY
Time perspective
PROSPECTIVE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Alzheimer' disease or avioral variant of frontotemporal dementia * No opposition from the patient to be included in the study * For Alzheimer's patients: a score of more than 24 out of 30 on the Mini Mental State Examination (McKhann et al., 1984)
Exclusion criteria
* Other psychiatric/neurological disorders * Minor patients * Adults under guardianship or protection.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Autobiographical specificity | 40 minutes | We will apply the method by Raes et al. (2007) to assess whether each retrieved event refers to a: specific event, categorical event, extended event, or semantic event |
Countries
France
Outcome results
None listed