Studies have shown that the "Four Seasons" music may enhance the autobiographical performance of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. We used a repeated measures design in which autobiographical recall of 12 mild AD patients was assessed using a free narrative method under three conditions: (a) in "Silence," (b) after being exposed to the opus "Four…

The objective of our study is to introduce a fully automated, computational linguistic technique to quantify semantic relations between words generated on a standard semantic verbal fluency test and to determine its cognitive and clinical correlates. Cognitive differences between patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment are…

Category specific semantic impairment (e.g. living versus nonliving things) has been reported in association with various pathologies, including herpes simplex encephalitis and semantic dementia. However, evidence is inconsistent regarding whether this effect exists in diseases progressively impacting diverse cortical regions, such as Alzheimer's…

Over the next 20 years the number of Americans diagnosed with dementia is expected to more than double (CDC, 2007). It is, therefore, an important public health initiative to understand what factors contribute to the longevity of a healthy mind. Both default mode network (DMN) function and increased aerobic fitness have been associated with better…

Purpose: Assess psychometric properties of scales developed to assess experience and perception of physical, psychological, and existential suffering in older individuals. Design and Methods: Scales were administered to 3 populations of older persons and/or their family caregivers: individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their family…