Disrupted interaction between self and memory in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

In humans, self and memory processes interact as evidenced by the self reference (SRE) and self reference recollection effects (SRRE). However, in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), this relationship can be disrupted. This was evidenced by impaired SRE and SRRE in AD for recognition of adjectives previously judged for self-relevance, as well as recall of names of people previously linked to the self. For both materials, a qualitative impairment of the recollective experience for the self-related items was also observed in AD. A neuroimaging approach suggested that reduced SRE is related to decreased grey matter volume in the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC). Thus, retrieval of recent self-related memories is impaired in relation to altered high-order processes in lPFC in AD.