title: Self-referencing and false memory in mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study explored the role of self-referencing on false alarm rates among people with mild cognitive impairment suggestive of the early signs of the Alzheimer's disease pathophysiologic process (MCI-AD). Given that people with MCI-AD demonstrate higher rates of false alarms and that false alarms have been shown to increase for self-relevant information, it was predicted that people with MCI-AD would experience a disproportionate increase in memory errors for highly self-related information.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with a diagnosis of MCI-AD (n = 23) and healthy control participants (n = 27) rated words for self-descriptiveness or commonness and completed a surprise recognition test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Contrary to expectations, results indicated that people with MCI-AD were at no greater risk for false alarms than were control participants as a function of self-descriptiveness, relative to a control condition. Despite the MCI-ADs' greater bias to say "yes" in the self condition, increasing self-descriptiveness did not lead to higher false alarm rates and did not impair performance in the self condition relative to commonness judgments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Therefore, although people with MCI-AD may be more susceptible to memory errors, they are at no greater risk of self-related errors than healthy control participants.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Brandeis University.
authors.forename: Nicole M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.affiliation: Boston University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Rebecca G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Deason
authors.affiliation: Boston University School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Andrew E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Budson
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Brandeis University.
authors.forename: Angela H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Gutchess
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012094:Repression, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept