Autobiographical memory, which contains all personal memories relative to our identity, has been found to be impaired in Alzheimer’ Disease (AD). Recent research has demonstrated that odor may serve as a powerful cue for the recovery of autobiographical memories in AD. Building on this research, we investigated emotional characteristics (arousal and valence) and subjective reliving of odor-evoked autobiographical memories in AD. We also investigated the relationship between these characteristics and depression. To this end, we invited participants with mild AD and controls to retrieve autobiographical memories after odor exposure or without odor. Results showed higher arousal, subjective reliving and more positive memories after odor exposure compared with the odor-free condition, these differences being observed only in AD participants. We also found that emotion (arousal and valence) and subjective reliving triggered by odor were associated with depressive symptoms in AD. These findings demonstrate that odor may be a useful cue to trigger more detailed, vivid and positive events in AD.
Introduction: There is a burgeoning interest in the effects of odor exposure on autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease (AD). We pursued this line of research by assessing the effect of odor exposure on the retrieval of recent and remote memories in AD. Method: Twenty-six patients with mild AD and 28 controls were tested in two conditions: with and without odor exposure. In each condition, participants were invited to retrieve two childhood memories, two adulthood memories, and two recent memories. Results: Analysis showed that AD patients produced a higher number of and more specific childhood memories, adulthood memories, and recent memories after odor exposure than without odor. Discussion: These findings demonstrate how odor exposure may alleviate anterograde and retrograde amnesia, at least when considering the ability of patients with mild AD to retrieve few recent or remote memories.
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