Memory impairment in Parkinson's disease

52 patients with Parkinson's diseases (PD), 11 patients with suspected Altz heimer's disease (AD) and 20 healthy individuals were observed. The age of the examined persons was 55-74 years. Both quantitative evaluation of the n eurologic symptoms and estimation of high psychic functions were performed by means of A.R.Luria's method. Memory tests were also used. It was found t hat PD was practically always accompanied by memory impairments which were out of the normal age limits. The main mechanism of memory impairment in PD without dementia included insufficiency of independent organization of the mnestic activity at the stages of memorizing and reproduction. Besides, a primary disorder was observed in PD with dementia. There were memory impair ments in PD with dementia (more crude disturbances of both involuntary memo ry and processing of information during memorizing) and in AD (disorders of a semantic memory). It was found that disorders of memory trace consolidat ion were more dependent on the age of PD beginning, whereas insufficiency o f the independent organization of the mnestic activity - on its duration. T he majority of memory indices correlated in PD with a degree of the disorde rs of a gait and postural reflexes. It is suggested that memory defects in PD are manifestations of the main pathologic process which had some differe nces from the other neurogeriatric diseases.