"I Remember the Fall": Memory of Falls in Older Adults.

OBJECTIVES: While there is a large body of research on falls and their consequences in older adults, little is known about how older adults remember them. We addressed this gap by inviting older adults to remember falls and control memories. METHODS: We analyzed specificity of memories and invited participants to rate emotional valence, mental time travel, visual imagery, importance, and rehearsal, as experienced during retrieval. RESULTS: Although analysis demonstrated no significant differences between memories of falls and control memories regarding specificity, participants rated memories of falls as more negative than control memories. Furthermore, they rated memories of falls as triggering higher mental time travel, higher visual imagery, higher importance, and higher rehearsal than control memories. CONCLUSIONS: The negative emotional valence of memories of falls, as well as their ability to trigger significant levels of mental time travel, visual imagery, importance, and rehearsal, demonstrate how these memories are different from other memories in older adults. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: The findings demonstrate how falls can modulate memory of personal events in older adults.

The "Sickness" Memory: Can Patients With Alzheimer Disease Remember the Diagnosis Announcement?

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD) can cause substantial psychological distress in patients. We thus assessed how patients with AD remember the announcement of diagnosis. METHODS: We recruited 47 participants with mild AD (26 women; M age=68.89 y, SD=7.37; M years of formal education=9.74, SD=3.00). We invited the participants to remember the moment when their clinicians announced their diagnosis, within 6 months of the event, as well as a control memory, over the same period. We analyzed memory retrieval regarding specificity, as well as the subjective experience of retrieval (ie, regarding mental time travel, visual imagery, emotion and importance). RESULTS: No significant differences were observed between memory of diagnosis and control memory regarding specificity, mental time travel and visual imagery. However, memory of diagnosis triggered a more intense emotional experience and feeling of importance than control memory. DISCUSSION: Retrieval of the diagnosis announcement can activate a strong emotional and personally important experience in patients with AD. When remembering the diagnosis announcement, patients with AD may re-experience some features of that turning point in which they shift from "person" to "patient."

The eyes of the past: larger pupil size for autobiographical memories retrieved from field perspective.

BACKGROUND: Visual perspective during memory retrieval has mainly been evaluated with methodologies based on introspection and subjective reports. The current study investigates whether visual perspective can be evaluated with a physiological measurement: pupil dilation. METHODS: While their pupil diameter was measured with an eye-tracker, forty-five participants retrieved one memory from a field perspective (i.e., as viewed through our own eyes) and one memory from an observer perspective (i.e., as viewed from a spectator's standpoint). After retrieval, participants rated the emotional intensity of the memories. RESULTS: Analysis demonstrated larger pupils during the retrieval of memories from a field perspective and higher emotional intensity for memories retrieved from a field perspective. DISCUSSION: The larger pupils for memories recalled from a field perspective could, however, not be attributed to their higher emotional intensity. These findings suggest that pupil dilation could be used as a physiological assessment of visual perspective during memory retrieval.

The subjective experience of mind wandering in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Little is known about mind wandering in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we evaluated the subjective experience of mind wandering in AD.Methods: We invited AD patients and control participants to rate the occurrence, intentionality, emotionality, visual imagery, specificity, self-relatedness and temporal orientation of mind wandering.Results: Analysis showed that AD patients rated their mind wandering as more frequent, negative, and more oriented toward the past, but less vivid and specific than that of control participants. No significant differences were observed between AD patients and control participants regarding the intentionality or self-relatedness of mind wandering.Conclusions: These findings demonstrate the negative content in AD. Regarding the reduction of visual imagery and specificity during mind wandering, this reduction may mirror a diminished subjective experience of mind wandering in AD. Regarding temporality, our results may reflect a tendency of AD patients to reminisce over past experiences. Finally, mind wandering in AD seems to trigger significant self-related content.

The Past as Seen by Women and Men With Alzheimer Disease: Sex Differences in Autobiographical Memory.

BACKGROUND: Although there is a large body of research demonstrating the negative effects of Alzheimer disease (AD) on autobiographical memory (ie, memory of personal information), little is known about sex differences in autobiographical retrieval in AD. METHODS: We addressed this issue by inviting patients with AD and healthy control participants to retrieve autobiographical memories and analyzed them with regard to specificity, subjective experience (ie, time travel, emotion, and visual imagery), and retrieval time. RESULTS: Analyses demonstrated no significant differences between women and men with AD with regard to autobiographical specificity, time travel, visual imagery, or retrieval time. However, the higher emotional value was attributed to memories by women with AD than by men with AD. DISCUSSION: AD seems to equally affect the ability of women and men with AD to construct specific autobiographical memories, to mentally travel in time to relive these memories, to construct mental visual images during memory retrieval, and to organize and monitor search processes, as the latter are mirrored by retrieval time. However, women with AD seem to attribute greater emotional value to autobiographical memories than men with AD.

A look into hallucinations: the relationship between visual imagery and hallucinations in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: We investigated the relationship between visual hallucinations and vividness of visual imagery in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Method: We recruited 28 patients with AD and 30 healthy control participants, matched for age and education. We evaluated proneness towards hallucinations with the Launay-Slade Hallucinations Scale, which includes items assessing visual and auditory hallucinations. We also evaluated vividness of visual imagery with the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire on which participants had to imagine four images (i.e., imagining the face of a friend, the rising sun, a familiar shop-front, and a country scene) and report the vividness of the images they generated. Results: Analysis demonstrated significant positive correlations between visual hallucinations and vividness of visual imagery in AD patients, however, no significant correlations were observed between auditory hallucinations and vividness of visual imagery in these participants. No significant correlations were observed between hallucinations and vividness of visual imagery in healthy control participants, probably due to the lack of hallucinations in these participants. Discussion: These results demonstrate a selective relationship between the occurrence of visual (but not auditory) hallucinations and the ability to generate vivid visual images in AD.

Mental imagery and autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease.

OBJECTIVE: A body of experimental, neuropsychological, and neuroanatomical evidence suggests a relationship between autobiographical memory and the ability to generate mental images. This study investigated this relationship in Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHOD: Twenty six AD participants and 28 control participants were asked to retrieve 2 autobiographical events. They were also administered measures of visual imagery (i.e., the taller/wider task), and spatial imagery (i.e., the clock angles task). RESULTS: Analysis showed preserved autobiographical memory and visual imagery but compromised spatial imagery in AD. Significant correlations were observed between autobiographical memory and visual and spatial imagery in AD and control participants. However, autobiographical memory was predicted by visual but not by spatial imagery. CONCLUSIONS: The ability to retrieve (i.e., visual imagery) and manipulate mental images (i.e., spatial imagery) seems to be related with autobiographical recall in AD. In particular, visual imagery may contribute to autobiographical retrieval in AD participants by providing them with visual cues that increase the ease and speed of search through the hierarchical structure of autobiographical memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Off-track thoughts: Intentional and unintentional mind wandering in Alzheimer's disease.

AIM: Despite the recent upsurge of interest in mind wandering (i.e. the occurrence of task-unrelated and stimulus-independent thoughts), little research has attempted to evaluate mind wandering in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We addressed this issue by evaluating intentional and unintentional mind wandering, as well as the relationship between both mind-wandering domains. We also investigated the relationship between mind wandering and depression and working memory. METHODS: A total of 30 participants with AD and 33 control participants participated in the study. RESULTS: The results showed higher intentional and unintentional mind wandering in AD participants than in controls. In AD participants and controls, both mind wandering domains were significantly correlated with depression, but not with working memory. CONCLUSIONS: The present findings show a tendency of AD patients to shift from external stimuli to task-unrelated thoughts and concerns, a tendency that seems to be related with depression. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2019; 19: 342-346.

Visual imagery: The past and future as seen by patients with Alzheimer's disease.

We investigated visual imagery for past and future thinking in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). We invited AD patients and controls to retrieve past events and to imagine future events. Participants also provided a "Field" response if they see the event through their own eyes, or an "Observer" response if they see themselves in the scene as a spectator would. Less "Field" and more "Observer" responses were observed in AD participants than in controls during past and future thinking, suggesting a diminished ability to mentally visualize past and future events in AD. Results also demonstrated significant positive correlations between the production of "Field" responses and specificity during past and future thinking, suggesting a relationship between the ability to mentally visualize past and future events and autobiographical overgenerality in AD.