| Abstract: | 14 patients with progressive idiopathic dementia (PID) were compared with 14 normal controls (average age 61.2 yrs) on psychometric and laboratory measures of cognitive processes. Patients had significantly lower scores than controls on the Wechsler Memory Scale and the WAIS Performance IQ, but not on WAIS Verbal or Full Scale IQ or Digit Span tests. Patients performed more poorly on learning and memory tasks than controls. Unlike the latter, patients' recall of categorized word lists was no better than their recall of unrelated words, and they did not consistently remember information that had been previously recalled. Patients also were unable to generate as many words that start with a given letter or that belong to a given category as controls did. Data show that while many intellectual functions are preserved, PID patients are unable to access structures in semantic memory and therefore fail to effectively encode episodic events so that they are memorable. Differences in cognitive dysfunction in PID and in depression are discussed. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
