What does an Alzheimer's patient remember most?
Alzheimer's patients oftentimes have a problem with their memory processing. So in other words, it is like having a tape recorder that plays but can not really record anymore. And the unfortunate situation is that we lose neuronal circuitry in this disease state. There are associated features in Alzheimer's disease that are theorized to be at the center of the problems associated with Alzheimer's. Extra cellular neurodic plaques would be to hamaloid cords and intra-cellular neuro fibulary tangles. Fancy words for saying that there is a cluttering process that is going on in the brain that is now creating a loss of the volume of brain tissue. If we start to lose brain tissue, unfortunately now we lose neuronal networks, or circuits that were previously were working well. And as a consequence of that, it makes sense why people can not retrieve recent memory. And where memory resides is really a great question of the present time. In essence, we think short term memory ties into the hippocampal region. Another words, a deep area in the basal forebrain right next to the temporal lobe. However, we know that that is one area that is being affected strongly by Alzheimer's disease. And in essence, it helps explain why it is that people have problems with short term memory recall. But not necessarily long term recall in the disease state. Later on it is a different story because unfortunately, as this disease gets worse, different areas of the brain are being affected.
