Lee Stephen D, Ong Ben, Pike Kerryn E, Kinsella Glynda J
a School of Psychology and Public Health , La Trobe University , Melbourne , VIC , Australia.
b Department of Psychology , Caulfield Hospital , Caulfield , VIC , Australia.
J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2018 Mar;40(2):183-197. doi: 10.1080/13803395.2017.1326465. Epub 2017 May 22.
Prospective memory difficulties are known to occur in Alzheimer's disease, and may provide an early indicator of cognitive decline. Older people reporting high levels of subjective memory decline (SMD) but without evidence of cognitive decline on standard neuropsychological tests are increasingly considered at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate whether prospective memory performance is differentially impaired in older people reporting high levels of SMD as compared to a control group.
A total of 195 community-dwelling older adults (M = 73.48 years) were assessed for self-reported complaints of memory decline and allocated to either a group reporting high levels of SMD (SMD, n = 96) or a healthy control group (HC, n = 99). Groups were assessed on neuropsychological tests, an experimental prospective memory task (focal vs. nonfocal cue conditions), and a naturalistic prospective memory task.
The groups did not differ in performance on standard neuropsychological tests of working memory, executive attention, and episodic retrospective memory. Furthermore, on an experimental task of prospective memory (the Supermarket Shopping Trip task), although performance of both groups was better when cues for prospective memory were focal to the ongoing activity (η = .35), the SMD group were not impaired relative to the control group. On a naturalistic prospective memory task, however, there was a small but significant effect, with the SMD group performing more poorly than the HC group (η = .02).
In older adults with high levels of SMD, naturalistic measures of prospective memory provide an approach to assessing memory performance that can offer a means of investigating the memory complaints of people with SMD. Identifying prospective memory difficulties in SMD also offers a focus for intervention.
前瞻性记忆困难在阿尔茨海默病中较为常见，可能是认知能力下降的早期指标。越来越多报告主观记忆衰退（SMD）程度较高但在标准神经心理学测试中无认知能力下降证据的老年人被认为患阿尔茨海默病的风险增加。因此，本研究的目的是调查与对照组相比，报告高水平SMD的老年人在前瞻性记忆表现上是否存在差异受损。
总共195名社区居住的老年人（平均年龄M = 73.48岁）接受了自我报告的记忆衰退主诉评估，并被分为报告高水平SMD的组（SMD组，n = 96）或健康对照组（HC组，n = 99）。对两组进行神经心理学测试、一项实验性前瞻性记忆任务（焦点与非焦点线索条件）和一项自然前瞻性记忆任务评估。
两组在工作记忆、执行性注意力和情景回顾性记忆的标准神经心理学测试表现上没有差异。此外，在一项前瞻性记忆的实验任务（超市购物之旅任务）中，尽管当前瞻性记忆线索与正在进行的活动相关时两组表现都更好（η = 0.35），但SMD组相对于对照组并未受损。然而，在一项自然前瞻性记忆任务中，存在一个小但显著的效应，SMD组的表现比HC组更差（η = 0.02）。
在报告高水平SMD的老年人中，自然前瞻性记忆测量提供了一种评估记忆表现的方法，可作为调查SMD患者记忆主诉的手段。识别SMD中的前瞻性记忆困难也为干预提供了一个重点。
