"Forget to whom you have told this proverb": directed forgetting of destination memory in Alzheimer's disease.
Destination memory is the ability to remember the receiver of transmitted information. By means of a destination memory directed forgetting task, we investigated whether participants with Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were able to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory. Twenty-six AD participants and 30 healthy elderly subjects were asked to tell 10 different proverbs to 10 different celebrities (List 1). Afterwards, half of the participants were instructed to forget the destinations (i.e., the celebrities) whereas the other half were asked to keep them in mind. After telling 10 other proverbs to 10 other celebrities (List 2), participants were asked to read numbers aloud. Subsequently, all the participants were asked to remember the destinations of List 1 and List 2, regardless of the forget or remember instructions. The results show similar destination memory in AD participants who were asked to forget the destinations of List 1 and those who were asked to retain them. These findings are attributed to inhibitory deficits, by which AD participants have difficulties to suppress irrelevant information in destination memory.
SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, University of Lille, 59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.
Mohamad
M
El Haj
SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, University of Lille, 59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.
Marie-Charlotte
MC
Gandolphe
Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire (EA 4638), LUNAM Université, Université d'Angers, 49000 Angers, France ; Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherches, CHU Angers, 49000 Angers, France ; Centre National de Référence des Maladies Neurogénétiques, CHU Angers, 49000 Angers, France.
Philippe
P
Allain
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6500 HP Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Luciano
L
Fasotti
SCALab UMR CNRS 9193, University of Lille, 59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France.
Pascal
P
Antoine
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis