Using memories to understand others: The role of Episodic Memory in Theory of Mind impairment in Alzheimer disease.

Using memories to understand others: The role of Episodic Memory in Theory of Mind impairment in Alzheimer disease. Ageing Res Rev. 2013 Jul 6; Authors: Moreau N, Viallet F, Champagne-Lavau M Abstract Theory of mind (TOM) refers to the ability to infer one's own and other's mental states. Growing evidence highlighted the presence of impairment on the most complex TOM tasks in Alzheimer disease (AD). However, how TOM deficit is related to other cognitive dysfunctions and more specifically to episodic memory impairment - the prominent feature of this disease - is still under debate. Recent neuroanatomical findings have shown that remembering past events andinferring others' states of mind share the same cerebral network suggesting the two abilities share a common process .This paper proposes to review emergent evidence of TOM impairment in AD patients and to discuss the evidence of a relationship between TOM and episodic memory. We will discuss about AD patients' deficit in TOM being possibly related to their difficulties in recollecting memories of past social interactions. PMID: 23838323 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Ageing Research Reviews - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Ageing Res Rev Source Type: research