title: Cognitive procedural learning in early Alzheimer's disease: impaired processes and compensatory mechanisms.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to study cognitive procedural learning in early Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cognitive procedural learning was assessed using the Tower of Hanoi (TH) task. In order to take account of possible interactions between different systems during cognitive procedural learning, we also measured non-verbal intellectual functions, working memory, and declarative memory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results showed an apparent preservation of cognitive procedural learning in AD and a deleterious effect of the disease on verbal intelligence and declarative memory. Correlational analyses revealed a difference between AD patients and control participants in the type of processing they applied to the task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The non-involvement of declarative memory would appear to be partly responsible for a slowdown in the cognitive procedural dynamics of AD patients. As the AD patients were unable to use their declarative memory, they were still in a problem-solving mode at the end of the learning protocol and had to implement higher order cognitive processes (i.e., compensatory mechanisms) to perform the procedural task.
authors.affiliation: Inserm-EPHE-Université de Caen-Basse Normandie, Unité U923, GIP Cyceron, CHU Côte de Nacre, Caen, France. helene.beaunieux@unicaen.fr
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Beaunieux
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Eustache
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Busson
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: de la Sayette
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Viader
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Desgranges
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D057567:Memory, Long-Term; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance