Univ. Lille, CNRS, UMR 9193-SCALab-Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, F-59000, Lille, France.
GHICL Service de Psychiatrie, Hôpital Saint-Vincent de Paul, Lille, France.
PLoS One. 2021 Sep 10;16(9):e0256959. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256959. eCollection 2021.
The reduced specificity of positive and negative autobiographical memories observed in anorexic (AN) patients may reflect a global disturbance in their emotional information processing. However, their emotional difficulties may differ according to the subtype of AN, implying possible differences in the manifestation of autobiographical memory impairments. The aims of the study were (1) to confirm the autobiographical memory deficits in AN patients in terms of specificity and wealth of memories, and (2) to compare autobiographical deficits according to the AN subtype: restrictive type (AR) or binge/purging type (AB). Ninety-five non-clinical (NC) individuals and 95 AN patients including 69 AR and 22 AB patients were administered the Williams' and Scott's Autobiographical Memory Test. The results confirmed a lack of specificity regardless of emotional valence in the overall AN patient group without any distinction of subtype, which was linked to the number of hospitalizations. When the AN subtype was considered, AR patients demonstrated reduced specificity for negative memories only, suggesting differences in emotional functioning or in the mechanisms underlying reduced specificity between AR and AB patients. Furthermore, the overall AN group demonstrated lower variability and complexity in their memory content than the NC group. However, this difference in the complexity of recalled memories was only found in response to negative cues. When AN subtypes were considered, AR patients showed fewer complex memories than NC individuals. Beyond a reduced specificity, AN patients also depict a poverty in the range of event recall and a difficulty in developing narrative content. The clinical implications of such autobiographical memory deficits need to be further investigated.
在厌食症（AN）患者中观察到的正性和负性自传体记忆特异性降低，可能反映了他们情绪信息处理的普遍障碍。然而，他们的情绪困难可能因 AN 的亚型而异，这意味着自传体记忆障碍的表现可能存在差异。本研究的目的是（1）根据特异性和记忆丰富度，确认 AN 患者的自传体记忆缺陷；（2）根据 AN 亚型（限制型或暴食/清除型）比较自传体缺陷。95 名非临床（NC）个体和 95 名 AN 患者，包括 69 名限制型和 22 名暴食/清除型患者，接受了威廉姆斯和斯科特自传体记忆测试。结果证实，无论情绪效价如何，整个 AN 患者组均存在特异性缺乏，且无亚型区分，这与住院次数有关。当考虑 AN 亚型时，限制型患者仅表现出对负性记忆的特异性降低，这表明 AR 和 AB 患者之间的情绪功能或导致特异性降低的机制存在差异。此外，与 NC 组相比，整体 AN 组的记忆内容的可变性和复杂性降低。然而，这种对负性线索的记忆复杂性差异仅在 AN 组中发现。除了特异性降低之外，AN 患者还表现出回忆事件的范围有限，以及叙述内容的困难。需要进一步研究这种自传体记忆缺陷的临床意义。
