Psychology Department.
Neuropsychology. 2023 Feb;37(2):194-203. doi: 10.1037/neu0000866. Epub 2022 Nov 28.
Remembering and imagining personal events that are rich in episodic (i.e., event-specific) detail is compromised in older adults who have mild cognitive impairment, a known risk factor for Alzheimer's disease dementia. Less clear is whether lower episodic detail generation is associated with higher risk for Alzheimer's disease dementia before mild clinical decline is detectable.
We compared past and future autobiographical thinking in clinically normal older adult carriers of the Alzheimer's disease-associated apolipoprotein E e4 allele (APOE4; = 39) to demographically and neuropsychologically similar non-APOE4 carriers ( = 43).
APOE4 carriers showed a significant reduction for episodic details when remembering past events ( = .47) and imagining future events ( = .46), but not for nonepisodic details.
These findings suggest that APOE4 is associated with a selective reduction of episodic detail during past and future autobiographical thinking among clinically normal older adults. Reduced episodic detail generation, therefore, may be an early cognitive associate of higher risk for Alzheimer's disease dementia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
对情节（即特定事件）细节丰富的个人事件的记忆和想象在轻度认知障碍的老年人中受损，轻度认知障碍是阿尔茨海默病痴呆的已知风险因素。不太清楚的是，在轻度临床衰退之前，较低的情节细节生成是否与阿尔茨海默病痴呆的更高风险相关。
我们比较了临床上正常的携带阿尔茨海默病相关载脂蛋白 E e4 等位基因（APOE4；n = 39）的老年成年人的过去和未来自传体思维与在人口统计学和神经心理学上相似的非 APOE4 携带者（n = 43）。
APOE4 携带者在回忆过去事件（β =.47）和想象未来事件（β =.46）时，情节细节明显减少，但非情节细节没有减少。
这些发现表明，APOE4 与临床上正常的老年成年人在过去和未来自传体思维中情节细节的选择性减少有关。因此，情节细节生成减少可能是阿尔茨海默病痴呆更高风险的早期认知关联。
