Measuring Recollection and Familiarity in Ageing and Mild Cognitive Impairment

这个研究是关于什么的？记忆对生活的许多方面都很重要。它有助于保持我们对自己的感觉，与他人回忆有助于保持社会关系，回忆我们过去的所作所为有助于指导未来的行为。然而，我们以这些方式使用记忆的能力取决于我们如何从记忆中检索信息。研究认为记忆有两个过程：回忆--一个类似回忆的过程，当某个人或某件事被认出时，其他的想法、图像或联想会浮现在脑海中，关于这个人或事物以前在哪里遇到过;熟悉--当某件事被认为是熟悉的，但没有其他信息被检索到。当认知能力在衰老和痴呆中下降时，受损的主要过程是回忆，但关于熟悉过程在衰老中如何变化的研究并没有产生一致的结果。我是一名心理学家，对这些记忆过程特别感兴趣，并了解当认知能力降低时它们是如何工作的。这项研究将比较最近开发的不同人群的回忆和熟悉程度的测量方法：年轻人，老年人和轻度认知障碍（MCI）患者。我们的目标是开发一种敏感的记忆障碍测量方法，以帮助早期诊断痴呆症。老年人的福祉是社会科学的一个重要课题。痴呆症目前每年花费英国超过260亿英镑，随着人口老龄化的增加，预计到2025年，英国将有超过100万人患有痴呆症。虽然随着年龄的增长会出现一些记忆丧失，但痴呆症中经历的记忆问题会严重影响患者的健康，并对家庭，夫妇和照顾者造成情感损失。然而，如果痴呆症在早期被诊断出来，可以做很多事情来帮助人们克服问题并提高生活质量。因此，更好地了解痴呆症早期受损的特定记忆过程至关重要，并利用这些知识为改善健康的护理途径提供信息。这项研究将如何组织？项目1：如何最好地测量回忆和熟悉度。该项目将比较不同的最近开发的，理论驱动的，这些过程中的年轻人的措施，以确定哪种方法是最敏感和可靠的。这将使最好的方法被用于项目2和3。项目2：回忆和熟悉过程如何在正常老化过程中发生变化。这个项目将使用从项目1中获得的最佳方法比较年轻人和老年人的记忆。这将使这些方法得到进一步完善，以便适合老年人使用。项目3：轻度认知障碍患者的回忆和熟悉度如何受损。MCI是痴呆症的临床前阶段，其中认知障碍大于年龄和教育水平的预期。本项目将比较健康老年人和诊断为MCI的个体的回忆和熟悉程度。这将帮助我们了解痴呆早期阶段记忆障碍的特殊模式，并将有助于进一步完善用于临床环境的方法。这项研究将产生什么影响？这项研究的主要影响将是增加对早期痴呆症记忆受损的理解。研究结果将与研究和提供痴呆症心理治疗的学者和临床医生分享，目的是申请进一步的合作资助，以测试和验证这项研究在临床环境中的结果。这项研究还将用于向公众推广社会科学研究。结果将在公众参与活动和项目网站上公布。

What is this research about?Memory is important for many aspects of life. It helps maintain our sense of who we are, reminiscing with others helps maintain social relationships, and recalling how we did things in the past helps direct future behaviour. However, our ability to use our memories in these ways depends on how we are able to retrieve information from memory. Research agrees that there are two processes in memory: recollection - a recall-like process where when something or someone is recognised other thoughts, images, or associations come to mind about where that person or thing was previously encountered; and familiarity - when something is recognised as being familiar but no other information is retrieved. When cognitive abilities decline in ageing and dementia the primary process to be impaired is recollection, but research on how familiarity processes change in ageing has not produced consistent results. I am a psychologist with particular interest in these memory processes and in understanding how they work when cognitive ability is reduced. This research will compare recently developed measures of recollection and familiarity in different populations: younger adults, older adults, and individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The goal is to develop a sensitive measure of memory impairment for help with early diagnosis of dementia.Why is this important?The well-being of our ageing population is an important issue for the social sciences. Dementia currently costs the UK over £26 billion per year and with the increasing ageing population it is predicted that by 2025 over 1 million people in the UK will be living with dementia. While some memory loss is expected with age, the memory problems experienced in dementia can seriously impact patients' well-being, and take an emotional toll on families, couples, and caregivers. However, if dementia is diagnosed at an early stage, much can be done to help people overcome problems and improve quality of life. It is thus critical to develop a better understanding of the specific memory processes that are impaired in early stages of dementia, and use this knowledge to inform care pathways that will improve well-being. How will this research be organised?Project 1: How best to measure recollection and familiarity. This project will compare different recently developed, theoretically driven, measures of these processes in younger adults to establish which method is the most sensitive and reliable. This will enable the best methodology to be used in Projects 2 and 3.Project 2: How do recollection and familiarity processes change in normal ageing. This project will compare younger and older adults' memory using the best method(s) obtained from Project 1. This will enable the methods to be further refined so that they are suitable for use with older people. Project 3: How are recollection and familiarity impaired in Mild Cognitive Impairment. MCI is a pre-clinical phase of dementia where cognitive impairment is greater than expected for age and education level. This project will compare recollection and familiarity in healthy older people and individuals diagnosed with MCI. This will help us understand the particular patterns of memory impairment that characterise early stages of dementia and will help refine the methodology further for use in clinical settings. What impact will this research have?The main impact of this research will be increased understanding of how memory is impaired in early dementia. Results will be shared with academics and clinicians who research and deliver psychological treatments for dementia with the aim of applying for further collaborative grant funding to test and validate the results of this research in clinical settings. This research will also be used to promote social science research to the general public. The results will be presented at public engagement events and on a project website.