title: Enhancing prospective memory in mild cognitive impairment: The role of enactment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Prospective memory (PM) is a fundamental requirement for independent living which might be prematurely compromised in the neurodegenerative process, namely in mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a typical prodromal Alzheimer's disease (AD) phase. Most encoding manipulations that typically enhance learning in healthy adults are of minimal benefit to AD patients. However, there is some indication that these can display a recall advantage when encoding is accompanied by the physical enactment of the material. The aim of this study was to explore the potential benefits of enactment at encoding and cue-action relatedness on memory for intentions in MCI patients and healthy controls using a behavioral PM experimental paradigm.
  
  
  METHODS
  We report findings examining the influence of enactment at encoding for PM performance in MCI patients and age- and education-matched controls using a laboratory-based PM task with a factorial independent design.
  
  
  RESULTS
  PM performance was consistently superior when physical enactment was used at encoding and when target-action pairs were strongly associated. Importantly, these beneficial effects were cumulative and observable across both a healthy and a cognitively impaired lifespan as well as evident in the perceived subjective difficulty in performing the task.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The identified beneficial effects of enacted encoding and semantic relatedness have unveiled the potential contribution of this encoding technique to optimize attentional demands through an adaptive allocation of strategic resources. We discuss our findings with respect to their potential impact on developing strategies to improve PM in AD sufferers.
authors: a Department of Psychology & Counselling , University of Chichester , Chichester , UK.
authors: Antonina
authors: A
authors: Pereira
authors: Alexandre
authors: A
authors: de Mendonça
authors: Dina
authors: D
authors: Silva
authors: Manuela
authors: M
authors: Guerreiro
authors: Jayne
authors: J
authors: Freeman
authors: Judi
authors: J
authors: Ellis
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000150:complications*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
keywords: Dementia; Enactment; Mild cognitive impairment; Prospective memory; Rehabilitation