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On hallucinations and memory: the relationship between hallucinations and autobiographical overgenerality in Alzheimer’s Disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2024

Mohamad El Haj Open the ORCID record for Mohamad El Haj [Opens in a new window]  and
Frank Larøi
Mohamad El Haj*
Affiliation:
CHU Nantes, Clinical Gerontology Department, Bd Jacques Monod, Nantes, France
Frank Larøi
Affiliation:
Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway Norwegian Center of Excellence for Mental Disorders Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
*
Corresponding author: Mohamad El Haj; Email: mohamad.elhaj@univ-nantes.fr
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Abstract

Objectives:

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been associated with autobiographical overgenerality (i.e. a tendency of patients to retrieve general rather than specific personal memories). AD has also been associated with hallucinations. We investigated the relationship between autobiographical overgenerality and hallucinations in AD.

Methods:

We invited 28 patients with mild AD to retrieve autobiographical memories, and we also evaluated the occurrence of hallucinations in these patients.

Results:

Analysis demonstrated significant correlations between hallucinations and autobiographical overgenerality in the patients.

Conclusion:

AD patients who are distressed by hallucinations may demonstrate autobiographical overgenerality as a strategy to avoid retrieving distressing information that may be related with hallucinations. However, hallucinations as observed in our study can be attributed to other factors such as the general cognitive decline in AD.

Keywords

Alzheimer’s diseaseautobiographical memoryautobiographical overgeneralityhallucinationsmemory
Type
Original Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , June 2024 , pp. 162 - 166
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Scandinavian College of Neuropsychopharmacology

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