Exploring recollection and familiarity impairments in Parkinson's disease

• Published in: Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology 2014-01, Vol.36 (5), p.494-506
• Main Authors: Rodríguez, Lucía-Azahara, Algarabel, Salvador, Escudero, Joaquín
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Associative recognition; Biological and medical sciences; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Familiarity; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Memory Disorders - etiology; Memory Disorders - psychology; Mental Recall - physiology; Middle Aged; Nervous system (semeiology, syndromes); Nervous system as a whole; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Parkinson Disease - complications; Parkinson Disease - psychology; Parkinson's disease; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Recognition (Psychology) - physiology; Recognition memory; Recollection; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1380-3395; 1744-411X
• DOI: 10.1080/13803395.2014.909386

There is conflicting evidence on whether patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) have cognitive deficits associated with episodic memory and particularly with recognition memory. The aim of the present study was to explore whether PD patients exhibit deficits in recollection and familiarity, the two processes involved in recognition. A sample of young healthy participants (22) was tested to verify that the experimental tasks were useful estimators of recognition processes. Two further samples-one of elderly controls (16) and one of PD patients (20)-were the main focus of this research. All participants were exposed to an associative recognition test aimed at estimating recollection followed by a two-alternative forced-choice (2AFC) test designed to estimate familiarity. The analyses showed a deficit in associative recognition in PD patients and no difference between elderly controls and PD patients in the 2AFC test. By contrast, young healthy participants were better than elderly controls and PD patients in both components of recognition. Further analyses of results of the 2AFC test indicated that the measure chosen to estimate conceptual familiarity was adequate.