Multi-modal Neuroimaging Phenotyping of Mnemonic Anosognosia in the Aging Brain

Lack of self-awareness of cognitive changes, such as memory decline, occurs in people who later go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease. In the present study, we investigated various characteristics of the brains of people who were unaware they were experiencing memory loss and likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease due to their age. We identified individuals with low performance in memory tests and a lack of sense of their memory decline. Compared to aware individuals, they had more deposits of proteins known to be present at higher levels in people with Alzheimer’s disease. The results of this investigation suggest that unawareness of memory decline is an early behavioral sign that a person might develop Alzheimer’s disease. This knowledge might enable such people to be more easily identified in the future, and treatments to be started sooner.