Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:27:13.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Implicit memory for words presented in short texts is preserved in Alzheimer's disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2002

J.-F. CAMUS
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Réné Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt; and Hôpital de Sébastopol, Service de Gérontologie and Hôpital Maison-Blanche, Service de Neurologie, Reims, France
S. NICOLAS
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Réné Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt; and Hôpital de Sébastopol, Service de Gérontologie and Hôpital Maison-Blanche, Service de Neurologie, Reims, France
E. WENISCH
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Réné Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt; and Hôpital de Sébastopol, Service de Gérontologie and Hôpital Maison-Blanche, Service de Neurologie, Reims, France
I. MORRONE
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Réné Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt; and Hôpital de Sébastopol, Service de Gérontologie and Hôpital Maison-Blanche, Service de Neurologie, Reims, France
F. BLANCHARD
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Réné Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt; and Hôpital de Sébastopol, Service de Gérontologie and Hôpital Maison-Blanche, Service de Neurologie, Reims, France
S. BAKCHINE
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Psychologie Expérimentale, Université Réné Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt; and Hôpital de Sébastopol, Service de Gérontologie and Hôpital Maison-Blanche, Service de Neurologie, Reims, France

Abstract

Background. The level of efficiency of implicit memory in Alzheimer's disease remains unclear as previous studies using stem completion tasks have led to contradictory results.

Method. The present study used target words embedded in significant short texts that subjects were required to read aloud (i.e. to enhance semantic processing). Texts were presented in two perceptual situations: ‘simple’ (blank spaces delimitating words) and ‘complex’ (spaces were filled by ‘8’s). In the completion phase, patients had to write the first word that came to mind in order to complete a three-letter stem. The recognition phase explored explicit memory performance. The performance of 24 Alzheimer patients was compared to a matched sample of healthy controls.

Results. Reading times differed between groups and were shorter for healthy controls. Recognition was dramatically lower in patients, thus confirming the alteration of explicit memory in this pathology. However, a significant priming effect (e.g. the tendency to complete the stem with the aid of a previously explored word) was present in both groups and did not differ between patients and healthy controls.

Conclusions. The absence of a correlation between priming and recognition scores suggests that this result cannot be explained by an explicit memory bias. Moreover, as the priming level was identical whatever the perceptual aspect of the text, we suggest that the priming effect is not only mediated by perceptual processes but also by lexical and conceptual processes, which to some extent are preserved during the light and moderate stages of this disease.

Type
Brief Communication
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)