Subjective working and declarative memory in dementia and normal aging

Abstract

Objective Subjective memory complaints are common in both elderly individuals and patients with dementia. This study investigated the power of subjective memory, divided into declarative and working memory, to differentiate between patients with dementia and normal elderly individuals. Method Two groups of participants, patients with dementia (n = 117) and normal elderly individuals (n = 117), individually matched with regard to age, gender, and education. All subjects had participated in the third wave of the HUNT population health survey in Nord‐Trøndelag County in Norway and completed the Meta‐Memory Questionnaire (MMQ) in the HUNT study. The MMQ was subdivided into two components, one associated with declarative memory (episodic and semantic) and the other with working memory. Results Patients with dementia reported significantly more subjective memory concerns than normal elderly individuals. The difference between working and declarative memory components was significantly greater in patients with dementia than in normal elderly individuals. This finding made it possible to differentiate patients with dementia from the normal elderly individuals. Mental and somatic health conditions did not significantly add power to differentiating the two groups. Conclusion In clinical and research applications, subjective memory components could contribute to differentiation of patients with dementia and normal elderly individuals by using self‐reported impairment in working memory, rather than declarative memory.

Subjective working memory predicts objective memory in cognitively normal aging: a HUNT study

“…A second implication would be that to learn about a person's episodic/semantic memory, you should ask about the person's ratings of present activity and most recent events. In an earlier paper [23], for example, we showed that MMQ outcomes could be used to differentiate between demented and healthy older individuals.…”

“…The Meta-Memory Questionnaire (MMQ) was chosen as a test of subjective memory in the present study, because it has been used previously in the Nordic countries [21][22][23][24][25], the internal structure has been investigated and found to be multi-dimensional [20], because there is no international standard of subjective memory test to rely on [17], and because this nine item questionnaire was used in the third wave of the North-Trøndelag Health survey (HUNT3) [26]. Interestingly, six among the nine items in the MMQ are included in the list of the 10 most common items in other questionnaires that assess subjective memory as reported by Rabin and associates [17].…”

The Challenge of Subjective Cognitive Complaints and Executive Functions in Middle-Aged Adults as a Preclinical Stage of Dementia: A Systematic Review

“…Studies analyzing the need to include tools (self-reports) that assess more executive processes such as working memory rather than declarative memory processes also advocated for the relevance of multiple-cognitive-domain screening compared to classical unidimensional cognitive assessments [ 52 ]. Thus, one of the limitations in the analyzed studies was the generalization in neurocognitive assessments.…”

The Effects of Cognitive Training Intervention on Quality of Sleep in Older Adults with Insomnia: A Systematic Review

“…Some studies suggest that implicit memory remains relatively stable over the adult lifespan (Lalla, Tarder-Stoll, Hasher, & Duncan, 2022) whereas others have reported age-related decline (Ward, Berry, Shanks, Moller, & Czsiser, 2020). Age effects on implicit memory can be influenced by factors such as attention and depth of processing (Almkvist, Bosnes, Bosnes, & Stordal, 2019).…”