Should I trust you? Learning and memory of social interactions in dementia

NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA

卷:104

Article

Wong, Stephanie^1,2,3,4,5  Irish, Muireann^1,3,4,5  O'Callaghan, Claire^5,6,7  Kurnfor, Fiona^1,3,4,5  Savage, Greg^1,2  Hodges, John R.^1,3,5,8  Piguet, Olivier^1,3,4,5  Hornberger, Michael^1,9,10 

[1] ARC Ctr Excellence Cognit & Its Disorders, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[2] Macquarie Univ, Dept Psychol, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[3] Neurosci Res Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[4] Univ Sydney, Sch Psychol, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[5] Univ Sydney, Brain & Mind Ctr, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[6] Univ Cambridge, Behav & Clin Neurosci Inst, Cambridge, England

[7] Univ Cambridge, Dept Psychol, Cambridge, England

[8] Univ Sydney, Sydney Med Sch, Cent Clin Sch, Sydney, NSW, Australia

[9] Univ East Anglia, Norwich Med Sch, Norwich NR4 7TJ, Norfolk, England

[10] NHS Norfolk & Suffolk Fdn Trust, Dementia & Complex Later Life, Lowestoft, Suffolk, England

关键词: Alzheimer's disease;    Frontotemporal dementia;    Memory;    Social cognition;    Trust game;    Financial exploitation;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.08.016

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Social relevance has an enhancing effect on learning and subsequent memory retrieval. The ability to learn from and remember social interactions may impact on susceptibility to financial exploitation, which is elevated in individuals with dementia. The current study aimed to investigate learning and memory of social interactions, the relationship between performance and financial vulnerability and the neural substrates underpinning performance in 14 Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 20 behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients and 20 age-matched healthy controls. On a trust game task, participants invested virtual money with counterparts who acted either in a trustworthy or untrustworthy manner over repeated interactions. A non-social lottery condition was also included. Participants' learning of trust/distrust responses and subsequent memory for the counterparts and nature of the interactions was assessed. Carer-rated profiles of financial vulnerability were also collected. Relative to controls, both patient groups showed attenuated learning of trust/distrust responses, and lower overall memory for social interactions. Despite poor learning performance, both AD and bvFTD patients showed better memory of social compared to non-social interactions. Importantly, better memory for social interactions was associated with lower financial vulnerability in AD, but not bvFTD. Learning and memory of social interactions was associated with medial temporal and temporoparietal atrophy in AD, whereas a wider network of frontostriatal, insular, fusiform and medial temporal regions was implicated in bvFTD. Our findings suggest that although social relevance influences memory to an extent in both AD and bvFTD, this is associated with vulnerability to financial exploitation in AD only, and is underpinned by changes to different neural substrates. Theoretically, these findings provide novel insights into potential mechanisms that give rise to vulnerability in people with dementia, and open avenues for possible interventions.

【 授权许可】

Free