Preservation of Temporal Skills in Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Previous researchers have assumed that temporal skills are lost early in Alzheimer's disease. This belief may originate from examining only one type of temporal skill—logical time. In this study three categories of time, that draw on different types of processes, were selected. It was hypothesized that, although those with Possible Alzheimer's disease would have difficulty with the logical time items, they would show relatively preserved performance on the two other types of time skills that rely on the automatic processes of socialized and intuitive time. Participants included 11 individuals who met the criteria for Possible Alzheimer's disease and a comparison group of 19 psychiatric patients who had Mini Mental State Examination scores in a normal range. As expected, those with Possible Alzheimer's disease performed as well as the comparison group on the intuitive and socialized time skills. Unexpectedly, it was found that one type of logical time skill was also preserved in the Possible Alzheimer's disease group.