ABSTRACT

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with an impairment of autobiographical memories, leading to the production of nonspecific memories. Recent research has demonstrated that odor can serve as a powerful cue for the retrieval of autobiographical memories in AD. Moreover, studies conducted in young adults have showed that odor-evoked autobiographical memories are evoked with more details compared with memories triggered by other sensory modalities. Building on the latter research, we compared specificity, subjective experience, emotional characteristics and retrieval time of autobiographical memories evoked by odor cue, visual cue and verbal cue. To this end, we invited participants with mild AD and control participants to retrieve autobiographical memories after the presentation of an odor, a visual representation of the odorant, or a verbal label of the odorant. Results showed more specificity, higher arousal and more positive memories after odor exposure compared to the visual cue and verbal cue in AD and control participants. In AD participants, autobiographical were retrieved faster after odor-exposure compared to memories evoked by a visual cue and a verbal cue, suggesting the automatic nature of odor-evoked autobiographical memories. Overall, these findings demonstrate that odor is more effective than visual or verbal cues for autobiographical retrieval in AD.

摘要

阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 与自传体记忆受损有关，导致非特异性记忆的产生。最近的研究表明，气味可以作为检索 AD 中自传体记忆的有力线索。此外，在年轻人中进行的研究表明，与由其他感官方式触发的记忆相比，气味诱发的自传体记忆能唤起更多的细节。在后一项研究的基础上，我们比较了气味线索、视觉线索和语言线索引起的自传体记忆的特异性、主观体验、情感特征和检索时间。为此，我们邀请轻度 AD 参与者和对照组参与者在出现气味后检索自传体记忆，气味的视觉表现，或气味剂的口头标签。结果显示，与 AD 和对照组参与者的视觉提示和语言提示相比，气味暴露后具有更高的特异性、更高的唤醒度和更积极的记忆。在 AD 参与者中，与由视觉线索和语言线索引起的记忆相比，暴露气味后自传体的检索速度更快，这表明气味引起的自传体记忆具有自动性质。总的来说，这些发现表明，对于 AD 中的自传检索，气味比视觉或语言线索更有效。与视觉线索和语言线索所唤起的记忆相比，气味暴露后自传体的检索速度更快，这表明气味引起的自传体记忆具有自动性质。总的来说，这些发现表明，对于 AD 中的自传检索，气味比视觉或语言线索更有效。与视觉线索和语言线索所唤起的记忆相比，气味暴露后自传体的检索速度更快，这表明气味引起的自传体记忆具有自动性质。总的来说，这些发现表明，对于 AD 中的自传检索，气味比视觉或语言线索更有效。