Assessment of Memory Impairment in Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Memory impairment has been considered as one of the earliest clinical hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. This paper summarizes recent progress in the assessment of memory impairment in predementia stages. New promising approaches of memory assessment include evaluation of longitudinal cognitive changes, assessment of long-term memory loss, evaluation of subjective cognitive concerns and testing of other memory modalities, such as spatial memory. In addition, we describe new challenging memory tests based on memory binding paradigms that have been recently developed and are currently being validated.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Elderly; memory binding; memory impairment; mild cognitive impairment; neuropsychological assessment; spatial memory; subjective cognitive decline..