Deficits in Autobiographical Memory in Alzheimer's Disease

Memory decline in general and autobiographical memory deficits in particular are the core symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The respective deficits can be observed even in the early stages of the disease, and mainly involve personal experiences including important lifetime events, rather than semantic biographical data. To investigate this observation in a large clinical sample and to standardize its examination, the respective deficits were documented on a modified version of the "Bielefeld Autobiographical Memory Inventory" (BAGI) in 230 nursing home residents (24 without cognitive deficits, 28 with mild cognitive impairment and 178 with AD). Even residents with mild cognitive impairment or early AD showed marked deficits of episodic autobiographic memory, which were even more pronounced in moderate and severe dementia. In contrast, semantic memory contents declined gradually with pronounced deficits only in severe dementia. These findings confirm and extend our understanding of autobiographical memory decline in AD and indicate that the respective deficits can be used as an early marker of the disease.