AD essay

Question 1

What is AD?

Answer 1

Progressive neurological disease. Affects everyday functioning and memory

Question 2

Why is it important to study?

Answer 2

WM is crucial for independent living, understanding the role of WM in AD can improve quality of life and inform treatment and care

Question 3

What does healthy WM functioning look like across a lifespan?

Answer 3

(Alloway + Gathercole, 2004; Courage et al, 2009): WM abilities appear around age 4
(Logie 2009): Components of WM (visual, verbal, spatial-binding) peak around age 20 and plateau, around 60 they decline, following different trajectories

Question 4

What brain damage do AD patients face? (Why is this relevant to WM)

Answer 4

Damage to the hippocampus

Jon (Baddeley, Allen, Vargha-Kardem, 2010 ) had damaged hippocampus, but visual binding was intact (shows it is not involved)

Yet AD patients have intact hippocampus

Question 5

How do healthy controls deal with dual-task tasks?

Answer 5

(Cocchini et al, 2002) Verbal, visual, perceptuomotor /THEN/ two memory tasks and articulatory suppression. Could do both tasks at the same time, no interference (separate components), only a slight decrement to performance - but DOABLE

Question 6

Why are dual-tasks studied in AD patients?

Answer 6

They have difficulty in everyday life with doing two things at once (walking + talking)