RELEASE FROM PROACTIVE-INTERFERENCE IN EARLY ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

The study analyses the performance of 22 mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients on the Release from Proactive Interference (RPI) paradigm wi th the aim to investigate the relationship of RPI with frontal functio n. Twenty-one normal elderly subjects, age and education matched, cons tituted the control group. Patients with AD were found to recall less words on each trial of the RPI than did the controls. The analysis of Proactive Interference (PI) and Release from PI, in AD patients, by us ing Anova (trial x group), showed a significant effect of trial and gr oup but not a group by trial interaction. These results indicate a sim ilarity between the performance of AD patients and normal controls on the Release from Proactive Interference paradigm. Despite the similar pattern of performance, AD patients were significantly inferior to nor mal controls with regard to global performance level. The AD patients' scores oil ''frontal lobe'' tests were correlated with an index of RP I (shift condition index). The only significant result was with the nu mber of categories on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, suggesting a we ak correlation between RPI and ''frontal lobe'' function.