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Retrograde amnesia for semantic information in Alzheimer's disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2005

MARTIJN MEETER ,
ARIANE KOLLEN  and
PHILIP SCHELTENS
MARTIJN MEETER
Affiliation:
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
ARIANE KOLLEN
Affiliation:
De Geestgronden IGG, Bennebroek, The Netherlands
PHILIP SCHELTENS
Affiliation:
Department Neurology, Alzheimer Center, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Abstract

Patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and normal controls were tested on a retrograde amnesia test with semantic content (Neologism and Vocabulary Test, or NVT), consisting of neologisms to be defined. Patients showed a decrement as compared to normal controls, pointing to retrograde amnesia within semantic memory. No evidence for a gradient within this amnesia was found, although one was present on an autobiographic test of retrograde amnesia that had a wider time scale. Several explanations for these results are presented, including one that suggests that extended retrograde amnesia and semantic memory deficits are in fact one and the same deficit. (JINS, 2005, 11, 40–48.)

Keywords

Semantic memoryVocabularyNeologismsAutobiographic memoryAlzheimer's disease
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , January 2005 , pp. 40 - 48
Copyright
© 2005 The International Neuropsychological Society

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