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Mnemonic Similarity Task to study episodic memory in Parkinson's disease
Tanusree Das1, Nessa Kim1, Colin McDaniel1
1Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Clinical Parkinsonism & Related Disorders
|July 28, 2021
Summary
Parkinson's disease patients show subtle memory impairments on the Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST), even without cognitive impairment. This sensitive task can identify early episodic memory deficits in Parkinson's disease (PD).
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neurology
Background:
- Parkinson's disease (PD) is frequently associated with episodic memory impairments, a risk factor for dementia.
- The Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) is a validated tool for assessing episodic memory in aging and neurodegenerative conditions.
- The MST has not previously been evaluated in Parkinson's disease patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the utility of the Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) in detecting subtle episodic memory impairments in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients without cognitive impairment.
- To assess the influence of dopaminergic medication on MST performance in PD patients.
- To compare MST performance between PD patients and healthy controls (HC).
Main Methods:
- Participants included 17 PD patients (tested both on and off dopaminergic medication) and 17 age- and education-matched healthy controls (HC).
- The Mnemonic Similarity Task (MST) involved participants identifying images as 'repeat', 'similar', or 'new' after an encoding phase.
- Performance was analyzed based on reaction times and response probabilities, with bias correction using the Recognition Index.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in MST reaction times were observed between PD patients (on/off medication) and HC.
- Response probabilities revealed significant differences, indicating MST's sensitivity to subtle memory deficits in PD.
- PD patients off medication were more likely to incorrectly label 'similar' images as 'repeat' compared to HC (p=0.030), a finding robust to bias correction (p=0.005).
Conclusions:
- The MST can be performed by PD patients without motor symptom interference, demonstrating its tolerability.
- Subtle recall or recognition impairments, undetectable by standard criteria, can be identified using the MST in PD patients.
- The MST is proposed as a sensitive tool for future research on episodic memory dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.
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