Alzheimer's disease versus normal ageing: a review of the efficiency of clinical and experimental memory measures.

This paper reviews research findings concerning memory performance in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and normal ageing. Studies using clinical (i.e., episodic) memory tests are compared with studies using various experimental memory paradigms (semantic memory, implicit memory, working memory), in order to determine their efficiency to differentiate between AD and normal ageing. In addition, attention is focused on early and preclinical AD. It is argued that traditional clinical memory tests alone are not best able at detecting AD at an early stage. More specifically, tasks calling upon semantic knowledge may aid to an earlier and more efficient assessment of AD.