Self-consciousness, the Self and human identity in Alzheimer's disease

Identity is a part of self-consciousness, which is also expressed as "being in the world" which one in turn shows to others as the Self. The assessment of the Self in a population of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to a multidimensional definition (physical, social, spiritual), showed that the social self was impaired, and the severity of impairment of the self was correlated to Apathy and lack of semantic autobiographical memory. It also appears that ipseity is selectively affected by the disease. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.