Primary and secondary anosognosia for memory impairment in patients with Alzheimer's disease

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldThe neuropsychology of anosognosia for memory impairment in Alzheimer's disease (AD) was examined in 92 AD patients and 92 case matched individuals for comparison, using three quantitative methods of assessment: Experimenter Rating Scale (ERS), Objective Judgement Discrepancy (OJD) and Subjective-Rating Discrepancy (SRD). The OJD showed significant domain specific correlations with memory functioning as well as a significant correlation with susceptibility to intrusional errors. Memory or executive dysfunction may affect the immediate ability to judge cognitive performance in a domain specific manner (secondary anosognosia). Longer-term awareness of cognitive deficit appears less influenced by impaired basic cognitive functions, than by the decline of metacognitive function (primary anosognosia)