Memory of myself: Autobiographical memory and identity in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

A number of theories posit a relationship between autobiographical memory and identity. To test this we assessed the status of autobiographical memory and identity in 20 individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 20 age-matched controls, and investigated whether degree of autobiographical memory impairment was associated with changes in identity. Two tests of autobiographical memory (Autobiographical Memory Interview, autobiographical fluency) and two measures of identity (Twenty Statements Test, identity items of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale) were administered. AD participants exhibited significant impairments on both memory tests, and changes in the strength, quality, and direction of identity relative to controls. Impairments of some components of autobiographical memory, particularly autobiographical memory for childhood and early adulthood, were related to changes in the strength and quality of identity. These findings support the critical role of early adulthood autobiographical memories (16-25 years) in identity, and suggest autobiographical memory loss affects identity.

Autobiographical memory and the self in a single-case of chronic unilateral spatial neglect

“…Using this task, clinical findings support that the study of the self is critical in understanding how people cope with their condition and how this impacts on their psychological well-being (Rathbone, Holmes, Murphy, & Ellis, 2015). However, while a loss of or a reduction in the accessibility of selfimages has been described in clinical populations as a result of AM impairment (e.g., Addis & Tippett, 2004;Tanweer, Rathbone, & Souchay, 2010), other studies suggest that in some cases, self-images can be maintained by semantic components of AM, despite deficient episodic AM (lllman, Rathbone, Kemp, & Moulin, 2011;Rathbone et al, 2009). …”

Behavior and Emotion in Dementia

“…All the studies agree that in AD, the episodic component of AM is deteriorated [37,48,54,55,57,[59][60][61]. In other words, there are great difficulties in mentally reviving past events and phenomenological aspects such as visual images [48].…”

“…Most studies agree that there is a deficit in this type of memory [37,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58], but there is disagreement about the pattern of the deficit: which component is more deteriorated, the episodic or the semantic? Which memories show a greater degree of decline, the recent ones or the remote ones?…”

“…On the one hand, some studies observe impairment in this type of autobiographical knowledge from the first stages of the disease [54,57], while others point out that it is preserved until moderate phases of the disease [48,63,64].…”

“…This problem has been evaluated in various studies, observing that poor autobiographical knowledge was significantly correlated with a weak sense of identity [54].…”