“The Castle of Remembrance”: New insights from a cognitive training programme for autobiographical memory in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Autobiographical memory deficits are prominent from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and result in a loss of personal identity. Nevertheless, standardised methods of autobiographical memory stimulation for the neuropsychological rehabilitation of patients with AD remain underdeveloped. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of a new cognitive training programme for autobiographical memory (REMau) on both the episodic and semantic components of autobiographical memory performance across lifetime periods, as well as on mood. Pre/post evaluations were conducted on two groups of patients with early to moderate AD, assigned to one of two different training activities: either the REMau or a cognitive training programme focused on collective semantic memory. Statistical comparisons showed significant improvement of episodic and semantic autobiographical memory performance in the REMau group, which was more pronounced for the semantic component, as well as improved mood. By contrast, deleterious pre/post differences were observed in the other group. Most interestingly, this study showed that the REMau programme boosted autobiographical memory from the reminiscence bump period, which is considered crucial for the construction and maintenance of personal identity. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results for the reduction of autobiographical memory deficits in AD.

Keywords:

• Alzheimer's disease
• Cognitive training
• Autobiographical memory
• Collective memory
• Reminiscence bump
• Identity

This study was supported by the Association France Alzheimer through a grant to Pascale Piolino (PhD funding for Jennifer Lalanne). The authors would like to offer sincere thanks to all the patients and their families for their participation in this study. We also thank Maria Abram and Paul Reeves for English corrections to the manuscript.