Objective:Recent research has revealed that cognitively unimpaired older adults who are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia often exhibit subtle cognitive alterations in their neuropsychological profiles. Emerging evidence suggests that autobiographical memory, which is memory for personal events and knowledge, may be sensitive to early AD-related cognitive alterations. In the present study, we investigated whether the rapid generation of autobiographical memory category exemplars, a retrieval process that taxes the neural network that is vulnerable to early AD, is compromised in cognitively unimpaired middle-aged and older carriers of the e4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE4), which increases risk for AD dementia.Methods:In addition to standard neuropsychological tests, we administered a fluency task that requires generating exemplars for two types of autobiographical memory, namely episodic memories and personal semantics, to a group of cognitively unimpaired middle-aged and older adults (n = 45) enriched with APOE4 carriers (n = 20).Results:While no APOE4 deficits were found on standard neuropsychological tests, episodic and personal semantic exemplar generation was reduced in the APOE4 group.Discussion:Autobiographical memory aberrations associated with a higher risk for AD are evident in fluency and affect both episodic memory and personal semantics.

中文翻译：

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阿尔茨海默病痴呆风险增加的认知未受损的中老年人的自传记忆流畅度降低

目的：最近的研究表明，认知未受损的老年人患阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 痴呆症的风险较高，他们的神经心理特征通常表现出微妙的认知改变。新出现的证据表明，自传体记忆，即个人事件和知识的记忆，可能对早期 AD 相关的认知改变很敏感。在本研究中，我们调查了自传体记忆类别样本的快速生成（一种对易受早期 AD 影响的神经网络进行征税的检索过程）是否在认知未受损的载脂蛋白 e4 等位基因的中老年携带者中受到损害E 基因 (APOE4)，会增加患 AD 痴呆的风险。方法：除了标准的神经心理学测试，n= 45) 富含 APOE4 载体 (n= 20)。结果：虽然在标准的神经心理学测试中没有发现 APOE4 缺陷，但 APOE4 组的情景和个人语义样本生成减少了。讨论：与 AD 风险较高相关的自传记忆异常在流畅性方面很明显，并且影响情景记忆和个人语义。