L. Sabe et al., DISSOCIATION BETWEEN DECLARATIVE AND PROCEDURAL LEARNING IN DEMENTIA AND DEPRESSION, Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section A, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology, 17(6), 1995, pp. 841-848
Declarative and procedural learning were assessed in patients with pro
bable Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and major depression, patients with AD
and no depression, patients with major depresion but no dementia, and
a group of age-comparable nondemented and nondepressed normal controls
. AD patients showed significant deficits in declarative but not in pr
ocedural learning, while depressed nondemented patients showed the opp
osite pattern (i.e., a significantly worse procedural than declarative
learning). Patients with both AD and major depression showed a simila
r learning pattern to the AD nondepressed group (relatively preserved
procedural learning but severe deficits in declarative memory). These
findings provide further evidence for the independence between declara
tive and procedural learning, and demonstrate their different vulnerab
ility in dementia and depressive-like states.