School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Neuropsychologia. 2020 Jul;144:107501. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107501. Epub 2020 May 21.
The Autobiographical Interview (AI) separates internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from transcribed protocols using an exhaustive and reliable scoring system. While the details comprising the internal composite are centered on elements of episodic memory, external details are more heterogeneous as they are meant to capture a variety of non-episodic utterances: general semantics, different types of personal semantics details, metacognitive statements, repetitions, and details about off topic events. Elevated external details are consistently observed in aging and in neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, we augmented the AI scoring system to differentiate subtypes of external details to test whether the elevation of these details in aging and in frontotemporal lobar degeneration (including mixed frontotemporal/semantic dementia [FTD/SD] and progressive non-fluent aphasia [PNFA]) would be specific to general and personal semantics or would concern all subtypes. Specifically, we separated general semantic details from personal semantic details (including autobiographical facts, self-knowledge, and repeated events). With aging, external detail elevation was observed for general and personal semantic details but not for other types of external details. In frontotemporal lobar degeneration, patients with FTD/SD (but not PNFA) generated an excess of personal semantic details but not general semantic details. The increase in personal but not general semantic details in FTD/SD is consistent with prevalent impairment of general semantic memory in SD, and with the personalization of concepts in this condition. Under standard AI instructions, external details were intended to capture off-topic utterances and were not intended as a direct measure of semantic abilities. Future investigations concerned with semantic processing in aging and in dementia could modify standard instructions of the AI to directly probe semantic content.
自传式访谈 (AI) 使用详尽可靠的评分系统，从转写记录中分离内部 (情节) 和外部 (非情节) 细节。虽然构成内部综合的细节集中在情节记忆的元素上，但外部细节更为多样化，因为它们旨在捕捉各种非情节的话语：一般语义、不同类型的个人语义细节、元认知陈述、重复和关于非主题事件的细节。在衰老和神经退行性疾病中，外部细节会升高。在本研究中，我们扩充了 AI 评分系统以区分外部细节的亚型，以检验衰老和额颞叶变性 (包括混合额颞叶/语义痴呆 [FTD/SD] 和进行性非流利性失语症 [PNFA]) 中这些细节的升高是否仅与一般语义和个人语义相关，或者是否涉及所有亚型。具体来说，我们将一般语义细节与个人语义细节 (包括自传事实、自我认知和重复事件) 区分开来。随着年龄的增长，外部细节的升高可观察到一般语义和个人语义细节，但其他类型的外部细节则没有。在额颞叶变性中，FTD/SD 患者 (而非 PNFA 患者) 产生了过多的个人语义细节而非一般语义细节。FTD/SD 中个人语义细节而非一般语义细节的增加与 SD 中普遍存在的一般语义记忆损伤以及该病症中概念的个性化相一致。在标准 AI 指令下，外部细节旨在捕捉离题话语，而不是直接衡量语义能力。未来与衰老和痴呆中的语义处理相关的研究可以修改 AI 的标准指令，以直接探查语义内容。
