Background. Apathy and reduced emotion-based decision-making are two behavioral modifications independently described in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Objectives. The aims of this study were to investigate decision-making based on emotional feedback processing in AD and aMCI and to study the impact of reduced decision-making performances on apathy. Methods. We recruited 20 patients with AD, 20 participants with aMCI, and 20 healthy controls. All participants completed the Lille apathy rating scale (LARS) and the Iowa gambling task (IGT). Results. Both aMCI and AD participants had reduced performances on the IGT and were more apathetic compared to controls without any difference between aMCI and AD groups. For the entire sample, LARS initiation dimension was related to IGT disadvantageous decision-making profile. Conclusions. We provide the first study showing that both aMCI and AD individuals make less profitable decisions than controls, whereas aMCI and AD did not differ. Disadvantageous decision-making profile on the IGT was associated with higher level of apathy on the action initiation dimension. The role of an abnormal IGT performance as a risk factor for the development of apathy needs to be investigated in other clinical populations and in normal aging.

IntroductionResults from studies on awareness disorders in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are controversial because the methodologies, the “objects” of awareness, and the patients' pathologic stage all vary. Our study aimed to compare scores and correlates of awareness according to the stage of the disease and the assessment method.MethodsWe compared 20 mild AD patients to 20 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, using the Patient Competency Rating Scale (PCRS; patient vs. caregiver report) and the Self‐Consciousness Scale (rating scale). All patients underwent cognitive, psycho‐affective and behavioral assessments (global cognition, executive functions, episodic memory, anxiety‐depression, and apathy measures).ResultsGroups were matched for age, education, and gender. They were comparable on the depression, anxiety, apathy and awareness scales (ps > .05), and differed for all cognitive variables (p < .05). Using the median split approach, greater apathy and lower depression were associated with poorer awareness on the Self‐Consciousness Scale (respectively: odds ratio [OR] = 4.8, p = .03; OR = 4.84, p = .04), and the PCRS (only apathy: OR = 9.3, p = .003). Greater apathy plus lower depression were associated with poorer awareness in both scales (PCRS: OR = 40.5, p = .005; Self‐consciousness scale: OR = 28, p = .012).ConclusionThese results evidence comparable awareness between AD and MCI patients. The correlates were more affective and behavioral than cognitive, independently from assessment method.

Previous studies have reported the major role of apathy in awareness assessment among Alzheimer’s patients using the patient-caregiver discrepancy method, whatever the awareness dimension assessed. Using the Apathy Evaluation Scales among other awareness scales, we report that apathy is the sole awareness dimension distinguishing healthy controls (25), mild (57) and moderate-to-moderately-severe (11) Alzheimer’s patients. A linear regression showed that the Mini-Mental State Examination score used as a risk factor for non-awareness was the only factor associated with awareness of apathy and was the best predictor. This suggests that apathy is the most discriminant dimension for awareness assessment in Alzheimer’s disease.

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HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

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We provide normative data of a French version of the HSCT for adults and elderly patients. These normative data obtained will be extremely useful for clinical practice and research purposes.