ULR 4072 - PSITEC - Psychologie: Interactions Temps Émotions Cognition, Université de Lille, Lille, France.
International Flavors & Fragrances (Inc.), Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;80(3):1169-1183. doi: 10.3233/JAD-200841.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic, neurodegenerative disease resulting in a progressive decline of autobiographical memories (AMs) which favors the development of psycho-behavioral disorders. One of the most popular psychosocial interventions in dementia care, Reminiscence Therapy, commonly uses sensory cueing to stimulate AMs retrieval. However, few empirical studies have investigated the impact of sensory stimulation on AMs retrieval in AD.
Our goal was to determine the most relevant cue for AMs retrieval in patients with early to mild AD when comparing odors, sounds and pictures.
Sixty AD patients, 60 healthy older adults (OA), and 60 healthy young adults (YA) participated in our study. Participants were presented with either 4 odors, 4 sounds, or 4 pictures. For each stimulus, they were asked to retrieve a personal memory, to rate it across 3 dimensions (emotionality, vividness, rarity) and then to date it.
Overall, results showed no clear dominance of one sensory modality over the others in evoking higher-quality AMs. However, they show that using pictures is the better way to stimulate AD patients' AM, as it helps to retrieve a higher number of memories that are also less frequently retrieved, followed by odors. By contrast, auditory cueing with environmental sounds presented no true advantage.
Our data should help dementia care professionals to increase the efficiency of Reminiscence Therapy using sensory elicitors. Other clinical implications and future directions are also discussed.
阿尔茨海默病（AD）是一种慢性神经退行性疾病，导致自传体记忆（AMs）逐渐下降，从而有利于心理行为障碍的发展。在痴呆症护理中，回忆疗法是最受欢迎的心理社会干预之一，通常使用感官提示来刺激 AMs 的检索。然而，很少有实证研究调查感官刺激对 AD 中 AMs 检索的影响。
当比较气味、声音和图片时，我们的目标是确定在早期至轻度 AD 患者中最能刺激 AMs 检索的线索。
60 名 AD 患者、60 名健康老年人（OA）和 60 名健康年轻人（YA）参加了我们的研究。参与者被呈现 4 种气味、4 种声音或 4 种图片。对于每种刺激，他们被要求检索个人记忆，并根据 3 个维度（情感、生动性、稀有性）对其进行评分，然后对其进行日期标记。
总体而言，结果表明没有一种感官模式明显优于其他模式，能更有效地唤起高质量的 AMs。然而，它们表明使用图片是刺激 AD 患者 AM 的更好方法，因为它有助于检索到更多数量的记忆，这些记忆也较少被检索到，其次是气味。相比之下，使用环境声音进行听觉提示并没有真正的优势。
我们的数据应该有助于痴呆症护理专业人员通过感官刺激剂提高回忆疗法的效率。还讨论了其他临床意义和未来方向。
