Incidental encoding strategies did not improve contextual memory in Parkinson's disease patients.
BACKGROUND
This study investigated the performance of patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) without dementia for incidental recognition memory and the effect of encoding strategies on contextual memory.


METHODS
The authors studied 21 patients with PD (ages 60-85, 12 women; Hoehn and Yahr I-III, Activities of Daily Living 70%-100%) and 22 healthy controls (ages 60-84, 18 women). Participants completed the vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). To assess the incidental recognition memory for item (object) and context (location of the object), participants of each group were assigned to 1 of 2 encoding conditions: ( a) an incidental associative instruction to bind the object to its location or (b) a nonassociative, nonspecific instruction.


RESULTS
PD patients showed performance comparable to the control group's on the vocabulary subtest and WCST. In contrast to controls, PD patients were unable to take advantage of the associative encoding instruction, which also had a deleterious effect on item recognition.


CONCLUSIONS
This sample of participants with PD showed diminished item and context recognition memory and an impaired ability to use incidental memory encoding strategy, suggesting a compromised cognitive reserve. The fact that these alterations occurred in early stages of PD, and prior to more general cognitive alterations such as executive dysfunction, should be considered in the management of patients by using specific cognitive rehabilitation interventions.
dos Santos
Cristiane Moro
CM
Neurobiology and Developmental Biology Laboratory, Pontifical Catholic University, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Balardin
Joana Bisol
JB
Irigaray
Tatiana Quarti
TQ
Schröder
Nadja
N
Rieder
Carlos R M
CR
Bromberg
Elke
E
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric