Involuntary memories in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Involuntary autobiographical memories: Comparing older adults with and without Mild Cognitive Impairment
IRAS ID
176846
Contact name
Agnieszka Niedzwienska
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 29 days
Research summary
Alzheimer’s disease has become a global challenge for the 21st century. Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease requires the presence of multiple cognitive deficits, which is a very late stage for possible therapeutic intervention. Current management attempts thus target the identification of individuals in the preclinical stage.
The study will therefore focus on the identification of individuals in the transitional state between normal ageing and Alzheimer’s disease, i.e. Mild Cognitive Impairment individuals. It will be a systematic and innovative investigation of automatic memory processes in old age. We will measure the efficiency of automatic processes as the number of involuntary autobiographical memories. These are memories of events from one’s own personal past, which come to mind spontaneously, without deliberate attempt to recall anything. They are automatically recalled in response to identifiable triggers in the environment. We will compare the frequency of these memories in Mild Cognitive Impairment and healthy older adults to directly answer the question whether Mild Cognitive Impairment is characterized by substantial deficits in automatic processing.
The study will help to clarify which specific type of processing is particularly disrupted in Mild Cognitive Impairment and thus could serve as an early marker of cognitive decline. The expected results will allow practitioners to recognize opportunities for early intervention.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EE/0089
Date of REC Opinion
20 Mar 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion