Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T13:06:23.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Short- and long-term memory in patients with presenile dementia (Alzheimer's disease)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Edgar Miller
Affiliation:
From the Department of Psychiatry, University of Southampton

Synopsis

Evidence is presented to show that patients with Alzheimer's disease owe their memory disturbance to both an impairment in short-term memory and an additional difficulty in establishing new material in long-term storage. These findings are particularly discussed in relation to the notion that, since the pathological changes in Alzheimer's disease are particularly manifest in the hippocampal region, then this involvement of the hippocampus might explain the memory disorder. The present experiment, which is similar to one previously reported using subjects with bilateral hippocampal lesions, shows the two types of memory disorder resulting from bilateral hippocampal damage and Alzheimer's disease to be qualitatively different. Some outstanding problems with regard to obtaining a complete understanding of the nature of the amnesic phenomena in Alzheimer's disease are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cermak, L. S., Butters, N., and Goodglass, H. (1971). The extent of memory loss in Korsakoff patients. Neuropsychologia, 9, 307315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corsellis, J. A. N. (1970). The limbic areas in Alzheimer's disease and in other conditions associated with dementia. In Alzheimer's Disease and Related Conditions, pp. 3750. A Ciba Foundation Symposium. Editord by Wolstenholme, G. E. W. and O'Connor, M.. Churchill: London.Google Scholar
Drachman, D. A., and Arbit, J. (1966). Memory and the hippocampal complex, Archives of Neurology, 15, 5261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glanzer, M. (1971). Short-term storage and long-term storage recall. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 8, 423438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, E. (1971). On the nature of the memory disorder in presenile dementia. Neuropsychologia, 9, 7581.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, E. (1972a). Clinical Neuropsychology. Penguin Education: Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Miller, E. (1972b). Efficiency of coding and the short-term memory defect in presentile dementia Neuropsychologia, 10, 133136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorndike, E. L., and Lorge, I. (1944). The Teacher's Word Book of 30,000 Words. Teachers' College, Columbia University: New York.Google Scholar
Warrington, E. K., and Weiskrantz, L. (1970). Amnesic syndrome: consolidation or retrieval? Nature, 228, 628630.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed