On episodic memory encoding in patients with mild cognitive impairment : a cognitive and imaging approach
(2011)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Ivanoiu, Adrian
- Abstract
- (en) AD research has progressed considerably over the past twenty years. We have moved from observation of a clinical dementia syndrome and description of pathological brain lesions at autopsy, to more precise characterization of the memory deficits predictive of AD dementia and the ability to confirm the diagnosis of AD using biological and brain imaging markers. In this work, the concept of MCI has emerged to define non-demented patients suffering from memory deficits and at high risk of evolving to AD dementia. The present thesis has addressed several issues related to the cognitive and imaging assessment of MCI patients. In addition to improving diagnostic accuracy, one of our main goals was to understand the mechanisms linking cognitive symptoms to neural damage. We showed that associative encoding was decreased in MCI, and that sensitivity to interference was increased. Anterior hippocampus dysfunction, and more precisely CA3 subfield atrophy, may account for both phenomena. The mechanisms involved could include a pattern separation deficit, although this needs to be confirmed by further studies. Improved cognitive assessment and brain imaging techniques have advanced AD research; but at the same time, these improvements have made AD research and clinical practice more complex. There are now many different ways to approach AD, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, most of them complementary. AD research now requires many different competencies (engineering, computer science, brain imaging, neuroanatomy, neuropathology, neuropsychology, empathy…), reinforcing the need for collaborations among experts from different fields in order to meet the challenges of tomorrow…
- Affiliations
UCLouvain SSS/IONS/IONS - Institute of NeuroScience
Citations
Hanseeuw, B. (2011). On episodic memory encoding in patients with mild cognitive impairment : a cognitive and imaging approach. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/236473