Assessment of the memory functions for faces in patients with early Alzheimer disease and Mild cognitive impairment.

Abstract

This paper investigated the performance of non-verbal memory in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD) and with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) using a face memory and learning task. Eight AD, 5 MCI, and 23 control elderly (HC) participants were completed the face memory task. Learning performance was tested by repeating face memory task four times (the first, second and third were immediate recognition, whereas the fourth was delayed recognition tested 30 min after the last encoding). The results demonstrated that AD showed the lowest performance in the immediate recognition function. The learning performance was the lowest in AD then MCI, and HC was the highest. The delayed recognition function was also differed among the three groups. These findings suggest that the changes in face memory function are detectable before AD progression, namely in the MCI phase.