Department of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Doctoral School in the Social Sciences - Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 18;13(1):11555. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-38674-w.
The spontaneous retrieval deficit (SRD) hypothesis argues that individuals in the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are particularly impaired in spontaneous retrieval, which manifests in reduced mind-wandering. Our main purpose was to provide novel evidence to support the SRD hypothesis by investigating, for the first time, the relationship between mind-wandering and periodontitis, the latter being the risk factor for AD. The second objective was to address the lack of deeper understanding of the relationship between oral health and specific cognitive abilities by investigating whether periodontitis would be primarily associated with memory. Sixty community-dwelling dementia-free older adults completed neuropsychological tests that focused on various cognitive abilities and a computerised task, during which mind-wandering was evaluated. Periodontal health was assessed subjectively, and through an oral examination by a qualified dentist that focused on visible periodontitis-related changes in gingival tissues and the number of periodontitis bacteria. In line with our predictions, objective and subjective symptoms of poorer periodontal health were associated with less mind-wandering, providing further support for the SRD hypothesis. Again in line with predictions, poorer periodontal health was associated with worse episodic memory, with no relationship between periodontitis and the measure targeting various cognitive abilities, from which memory was excluded.
自发回忆缺陷（SRD）假说认为，处于阿尔茨海默病（AD）临床前阶段的个体在自发回忆方面特别受损，这表现为思维漫游减少。我们的主要目的是通过首次研究思维漫游与牙周炎之间的关系，为支持 SRD 假说提供新的证据，后者是 AD 的风险因素。第二个目的是通过研究牙周炎是否主要与记忆有关，来解决对口腔健康与特定认知能力之间关系的理解不足的问题。60 名居住在社区、无痴呆的老年人完成了神经心理学测试，这些测试侧重于各种认知能力和一项计算机任务，在此期间评估了思维漫游。牙周健康状况通过主观评估和由合格牙医进行的口腔检查来评估，重点是牙龈组织中可见的牙周炎相关变化和牙周炎细菌数量。符合我们的预测，客观和主观的较差牙周健康症状与较少的思维漫游有关，这为 SRD 假说提供了进一步的支持。同样符合预测的是，较差的牙周健康与较差的情景记忆有关，而牙周炎与排除记忆的针对各种认知能力的测量之间没有关系。
