The memory set

In patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, the first impairments generally concern episodic memory which involves personally experienced events. By conducting several studies, the Ageing and Memory group of the Cyclotron Research Centre, University of Liege has explored how memory is functioning and also how it is malfunctioning in patients suffering from this dementia. “All the experiments have shown that Alzheimer’s patients more easily use a feeling of familiarity to recognize a piece of information because their failing episodic memory does not allow them accessing to sufficient details in order to be able to remember the entire context of an event”, explains doctor Eric Salmon, coordinating neurologist at the Memory Centre and the Neuropsychology Unit of the University Hospital of Liege. Since “familiarity” is largely preserved at early stages of Alzheimer’s, its use should be promoted as it seems possible that it can be used as a compensatory mechanism enabling patients to continue to devote themselves to the fulfillment of routine daily activities. Read the article.