Episodic Memory in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's Disease Dementia (ADD): Using the "Doors and People" Tool to Differentiate between Early aMCI-Late aMCI-Mild ADD Diagnostic Groups

Athanasios Chatzikostopoulos; Despina Moraitou; Magdalini Tsolaki; Elvira Masoura; Georgia Papantoniou; Maria Sofologi; Vasileios Papaliagkas; Georgios Kougioumtzis; Efthymios Papatzikis

doi:10.3390/diagnostics12071768

Episodic Memory in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) and Alzheimer's Disease Dementia (ADD): Using the "Doors and People" Tool to Differentiate between Early aMCI-Late aMCI-Mild ADD Diagnostic Groups

Diagnostics (Basel). 2022 Jul 21;12(7):1768. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics12071768.

Authors

Athanasios Chatzikostopoulos^{1

2}, Despina Moraitou^{3

4}, Magdalini Tsolaki^{1

2

4}, Elvira Masoura³, Georgia Papantoniou^{5

6}, Maria Sofologi^{5

6}, Vasileios Papaliagkas⁷, Georgios Kougioumtzis⁸, Efthymios Papatzikis^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Neurosciences and Neurodegenerative Diseases, Postgraduate Course, Medical School, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
² Greek Association of Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (GAADRD), 54643 Thessaloniki, Greece.
³ Laboratory of Psychology, Department of Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, School of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁴ Laboratory of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation (CIRI-AUTH), Balkan Center, Aristotle University, 10th km Thessaloniki-Thermi, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁵ Laboratory of Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, School of Education, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
⁶ Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University Research Centre of Ioannina (URCI), 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
⁷ Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Health Sciences, International Hellenic University, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece.
⁸ Department of Turkish and Modern Asian Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15772 Athens, Greece.
⁹ Department of Early Childhood Education and Care, Oslo Metropolitan University, 0176 Oslo, Norway.
¹⁰ Bright Start Foundation for Maternal and Child Health, 1209 Geneva, Switzerland.

Abstract

Episodic memory is the type of memory that allows the recollection of personal experiences containing information on what has happened and, also, where and when it happened. Because of its sensitivity to neurodegenerative diseases and the aging of the brain, it is considered a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD). The objective of the present study was to examine episodic memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and ADD. Patients with the diagnosis of early aMCI, late aMCI, and mild ADD were evaluated using the Doors and People tool which consists of four subtests examining different aspects of episodic memory. The statistical analysis with receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) showed the discriminant potential and the cutoffs of every subtest. Overall, the evaluation of episodic memory with the Doors and People tool can discriminate with great sensitivity between the different groups of people with AD and, especially, early aMCI, late aMCI, and mild ADD patients.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; neuropsychological tool; recall; recognition; verbal episodic memory; visuospatial episodic memory.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.