A shrinking span of temporal continuity in dementia of the Alzheimer's type.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the integrity of memory function in terms of temporal continuity in a way that would engage a patient in everyday behavior, such as informal conversation, but still allow memory function to be quantified.


BACKGROUND
This bedside task allowed the measurement of the duration of continuous, conscious experience of the present and was therefore termed "span of temporal continuity."


METHODS
We tracked span of temporal continuity in a patient we believed was in the very early stages of Alzheimer's disease longitudinally.


RESULTS
We found a progressively smaller span in which this patient experiences continuity in keeping with disease duration.


CONCLUSIONS
In terms of span of temporal continuity in our single subject, we were able to document a progressively smaller span in which VB experiences continuity before any telling neuropsychologic deficits. Hence, our measure might serve to better identify and characterize dementia of the Alzheimer's type in its incipient stages.
Zakzanis
Konstantine K
KK
Division of Life Sciences, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. zakzanis@utsc.utoronto.ca
Leach
Larry
L
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors