title: [Working memory for music in patients with mild cognitive impairment and early stage Alzheimer's disease].
abstract: A variety of studies demonstrated that some forms of memory for music are spared in dementia, but only few studies have investigated patients with early stages of dementia. In this pilot-study we tested working memory for music in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) with a newly created test. The test probed working memory using 7 gradually elongated tone-lines and 6 chords which were each followed by 3 similar items and 1 identical item. The participants of the study, namely 10 patients with MCI, 10 patients with early stage AD and 23 healthy subjects were instructed to select the identical tone-line or chord. Subjects with MCI and early AD showed significantly reduced performance than controls in most of the presented tasks. In recognizing chords MCI- participants surprisingly showed an unimpaired performance. The gradual increase of the impairment during the preclinical phase of AD seems to spare this special ability in MCI.
authors: Institut für Psychologie, Universität Innsbruck, Bruno-Sander-Haus, Innrain 52, 6020, Innsbruck, Österreich.  manuela@kerer.bz
authors: Manuela
authors: M
authors: Kerer
authors: Josef
authors: J
authors: Marksteiner
authors: Hartmann
authors: H
authors: Hinterhuber
authors: Guerino
authors: G
authors: Mazzola
authors: Georg
authors: G
authors: Kemmler
authors: Harald R
authors: HR
authors: Bliem
authors: Elisabeth M
authors: EM
authors: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009146:Music; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010865:Pilot Projects