title: Evolution of autobiographical memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia - A longitudinal neuroimaging study.
abstract: Compromised autobiographical memory (ABM) retrieval is well established in dementia, attributable to degeneration of a core memory brain network. It remains unclear, however, how the progressive spread of atrophy with advancing disease severity impacts ABM retrieval across life epochs. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study of recent and remote ABM in Alzheimer's disease (AD, n =11), and a frontotemporal lobar degeneration group (FTD, n =13) comprising 7 behavioral variant FTD and 6 semantic dementia patients, in comparison with 23 healthy older Controls. Patients were re-assessed approximately one year following their initial visit and underwent repeat testing and brain imaging. Linear mixed modeling neuroimaging analyses explored disease-specific cortical changes driving ABM alterations over time. AD patients showed comparable ABM profiles across assessment periods however, follow-up performance correlated strongly with lateral temporal lobe integrity. In contrast, recent ABMs were disproportionately disrupted at follow-up relative to baseline in the FTD group, attributable to cortical thinning in posterior brain regions, including the right posterior cingulate cortex. Our findings offer new insights regarding the potential time-specific role of discrete cortical regions in ABM retrieval and the differential fate of formerly evocative memories with advancing disease severity in dementia syndromes.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: muireann.irish@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Muireann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Irish
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Landin-Romero
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Annu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mothakunnel
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Siddharth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramanan
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Sharpley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hodges
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney, Australia; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Piguet
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001284:Atrophy; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D008875:Middle Aged; D059906:Neuroimaging
keywords: Consolidation; Episodic memory; Lateral temporal cortex; Neuroimaging; Posterior cingulate cortex; Semantic memory