Prosocial Capabilities in Alzheimer's Patients

Objectives To examine the decision making of Alzheimer's patients in a simple, classic game focusing on their capabilities to implement social norms and common social preferences. Methods Patients with Stage I (very mild and mild) Alzheimer's disease (AD) were asked to participate in a dic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2010-01, Vol.65B (1), p.119-128
Main Authors: Bosch-Domènech, Antoni, Nagel, Rosemarie, Sánchez-Andrés, Juan V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of Daily Living - psychology
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Aged
Alzheimer Disease - psychology
Alzheimer patients
Alzheimer's disease
Biological and medical sciences
Capabilities
Case-Control Studies
Comprehension
Decision making
Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases
Dictator games
Female
Games
Games, Experimental
Gerontology
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Medical sciences
Mental Competency - psychology
Neurology
Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology
Patient Participation - psychology
Preferences
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Social Behavior
Social norms
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Summary:Objectives To examine the decision making of Alzheimer's patients in a simple, classic game focusing on their capabilities to implement social norms and common social preferences. Methods Patients with Stage I (very mild and mild) Alzheimer's disease (AD) were asked to participate in a dictator game, a type of game in which a subject has to decide how to allocate a certain amount of money between himself and another person. Results When we compared the results of treatments involving AD patients (at an early stage) with those of identical treatments involving patients with mild cognitive impairment or healthy elderly controls, with similar ages and social backgrounds, we did not find statistically significant differences. Discussion This finding suggests that Stage I AD patients are as capable of making decisions involving basic social norms and preferences as other individuals of their age. Whatever brain structures are affected by the disease, they do not appear to influence, at this early stage, the neural basis for cooperation-enhancing social interactions.
ISSN:1079-5014
1758-5368
DOI:10.1093/geronb/gbp034