Autobiographical memory: a clinical perspective

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Nadja UrbanowitschJohannes Schroder

Abstract

Autobiographical memory (ABM) comprises memories of one's own past that are characterized by a sense of subjective time and autonoetic awareness. Although ABM deficits are among the primary symptoms of patients with major psychiatric conditions such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer Disease (AD) or chronic schizophrenia large clinical studies are scarce. We therefore summarize and discuss the results of our clinical studies on ABM deficits in the respective conditions. In these studies ABM was assessed by using the same instrument - i.e., the Erweitertes Autobiographisches Gedächtnis Inventar (E-AGI) - thus allowing a direct comparison between diagnostic groups. Episodic ABM, especially the richness of details was impaired already in MCI and in beginning AD. Semantic memories were spared until moderate stages, indicating a dissociation between both memory systems. A recency effect was detectable in cognitively unimpaired subjects and vanished in patients with AD. A similar pattern of deficits was found in patients with chronic schizophrenia but not in patients with major depression. These ABM deficits were not accounted for by gender, or education level and did not apply for the physiological ageing process in ot...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 24, 2016·Psychiatry Research. Neuroimaging·Catherine Faget-AgiusEric Guedj
Mar 31, 2016·PloS One·Lynette Hung, Richard A Bryant
May 29, 2021·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Berta NicolásLluís Fuentemilla

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