Suffolk University, Department of Psychology, Boston, MA, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2012 Jul;50(9):2333-40. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.06.001. Epub 2012 Jun 13.
Understanding how memory breaks down in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) process has significant implications, both clinically and with respect to intervention development. Previous work has highlighted a robust picture superiority effect in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). However, it remains unclear as to how pictures improve memory compared to words in this patient population. In the current study, we utilized receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to obtain estimates of familiarity and recollection for pictures and words in patients with aMCI and healthy older controls. Analysis of accuracy shows that even when performance is matched between pictures and words in the healthy control group, patients with aMCI continue to show a significant picture superiority effect. The results of the ROC analysis showed that patients demonstrated significantly impaired recollection and familiarity for words compared controls. In contrast, patients with aMCI demonstrated impaired recollection, but intact familiarity for pictures, compared to controls. Based on previous work from our lab, we speculate that patients can utilize the rich conceptual information provided by pictures to enhance familiarity, and perceptual information may allow for post-retrieval monitoring or verification of the enhanced sense of familiarity. Alternatively, the combination of enhanced conceptual and perceptual fluency of the test item might drive a stronger or more robust sense of familiarity that can be accurately attributed to a studied item.
了解记忆在阿尔茨海默病（AD）早期阶段的衰退方式具有重要意义，无论是在临床方面还是在干预措施的开发方面都是如此。先前的研究强调了遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）患者中存在强大的图片优势效应。然而，目前尚不清楚与文字相比，图片如何改善该患者群体的记忆。在当前的研究中，我们利用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线获得了遗忘型轻度认知障碍患者和健康老年对照组中对图片和文字的熟悉度和记忆提取程度的估计值。分析准确性的结果表明，即使在健康对照组中图片和文字的表现相匹配时，aMCI 患者仍继续表现出明显的图片优势效应。ROC 分析的结果表明，与对照组相比，患者对单词的记忆提取和熟悉度明显受损。相比之下，与对照组相比，遗忘型轻度认知障碍患者对图片的记忆提取受损，但对图片的熟悉度未受损。基于我们实验室之前的工作，我们推测患者可以利用图片提供的丰富概念信息来增强熟悉度，而感知信息可能允许对增强的熟悉度进行后检索监测或验证。或者，测试项目的增强的概念和感知流畅性的组合可能会产生更强烈或更稳健的熟悉感，可以准确地归因于已学习的项目。
