Memory loss is one of the most well-known and heartbreaking consequences of Alzheimer’s disease. As Alzheimer’s starts to develop, episodic memory starts to decline. This means that the memory of personal experiences and events, and of the time, place and emotional context of those experiences starts to fade.
Memory requires the ability to encode, consolidate, store and retrieve information. Whenever one of these processes is compromised, memories are inaccessible, either because they were never encoded or stored in the first place, or because, even though they’re in there somewhere, we’re unable to access them.
What has been unclear, in Alzheimer’s patients, is what part of memory is disrupted. Since recent experiences are the first to be forgotten, the ability to store new information has been regarded as the most compromised aspect of memory mechan…
Memory loss is one of the most well-known and heartbreaking consequences of Alzheimer’s disease. As Alzheimer’s starts to develop, episodic memory starts to decline. This means that the memory of personal experiences and events, and of the time, place and emotional context of those experiences starts to fade.
Memory requires the ability to encode, consolidate, store and retrieve information. Whenever one of these processes is compromised, memories are inaccessible, either because they were never encoded or stored in the first place, or because, even though they’re in there somewhere, we’re unable to access them.
What has been unclear, in Alzheimer’s patients, is what part of memory is disrupted. Since recent experiences are the first to be forgotten, the ability to store new information has been regarded as the most compromised aspect of memory mechan…
What Do You Think?
comments