Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Subjective Cognitive Complaints (SCCs) can often precede mild cognitive impairment and dementia longitudinally. While increasingly considered an early prodromal stage of dementia, SCCs can also be a symptom of depression. Previous research found that SCCs in the absence of cognitive impairment, controlling for symptoms of depression, were moderately heritable and genetically associated with memory.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Subjective cognitive complaints (SCCs) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are emerging as potential early indicators of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD). SCCs refers to a self-perceived decline in cognitive abilities without objective impairment, while NPS describe neuropsychiatric symptoms that emerge in later life that may precede or co-occur with cognitive decline. This study explores the association between SCCs, NPS, global cognition, and incident dementia using data from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study (MAS).

Ageing stereotypes influence the transmission of false memories in the social contagion paradigm.

These experiments are the first to investigate the impact of confederate accuracy, age, and age stereotypes in the social contagion of memory paradigm. Across two experiments, younger participants recalled household scenes with an actual (Experiment 1) or virtual (Experiment 2), older or younger confederate who suggested different proportions (0%, 33% or 100%) of false items during collaboration. In Experiment 2, positive and negative age stereotypes were primed by providing bogus background information about our older confederate before collaboration.

The influences of partner accuracy and partner memory ability on social false memories.

In this study, we examined whether increasing the proportion of false information suggested by a confederate would influence the magnitude of socially introduced false memories in the social contagion paradigm Roediger, Meade, & Bergman (Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 8:365-371, 2001). One participant and one confederate collaboratively recalled items from previously studied household scenes. During collaboration, the confederate interjected 0 %, 33 %, 66 %, or 100 % false items.