Another Early Warning Sign of Alzheimer's Disease

Lead author of a new study, Alan Castel, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that one of the first signs that Alzheimer’s disease may be developing is:  a failure to control attention.

Research published in the May 2009 issue of the journal “Neuropsychology”, indicates that memory can be a limited resource and as we get older, we need to be more selective in focusing on what the important things are that need to be remembered while letting less important things slide away from our working – day to day – memory.  Healthy older adults become more selective in what they want to remember as they age, and focus their attention away from matters they deem less important.  According to Castel, the ability to be selective likely declines in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

The study in question recruited three groups of individuals:  group one consisted of 109 healthy adults with an average age of slightly less than 75.  Sixty-eight of this group’s participants were women.  Group two consisted of 54 older adults with very mild Alzheimer’s disease, who were functioning fine from day to day.  Twenty-two of these participants were female, with an average age of slightly less than 76.  The third group consisted of 35 young adults.  The average age of this group was 19.

Words displayed on a screen at one second intervals were given low to high point values.  At the end of the word presentation, each participant was given 30 seconds to recall the words (which were all common words), and told to focus on the words that had been assigned a higher value in order to maximize the scores. 

The young adults were selective in which words they did and did not recall.  They remembered more of the high-value words and forgot more of the low-value words.

The healthy older adults remembered fewer words, but were equally selective in what they did remember – remembering more of the words of higher value than the words of lower value. Short term memory capacity declines with age, so the fact that this group remembered fewer words than the younger group did was not surprising to the researchers.

The participants with mild Alzheimer’s disease recalled very few words and their ability to be selective in order to maximize their scores was worse.

As we age, memory can become a very limited resource over time, so focus on the few important things that you need to remember from time to time.  For instance, if you are travelling to another city to attend a wedding, ensure that you have your travel documents and all the medications you might need for the duration of your trip.  Perhaps your favourite outfit and the wedding gift are to be remembered, too.  Anything else you may forget to pack can likely be picked up at the destination.

And, as a final note, perhaps not salient to this study, but good in terms of practical day to day functioning:  remember to make lists and consult them as required.

D.

(1)  "Early Alzheimer’s: Not Remembering What is Important to Remember", June 28, 2009, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090625152933.htm