False Memories: The Other Side of Forgetting
It has been known for over 100 years that individuals with Alzheimer’s disease have trouble remembering information and frequently forget appointments and where they left their glasses. It has also been known that an occasional individual will develop false, distorted, or mixed up memories. What had not previously been studied is how common it is for individuals with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease to develop these false, distorted, and mixed up memories.
Using a novel false memory questionnaire, researchers at the VA Boston Healthcare System were able to compare forgetting and false memories. They found that false memories were incredibly common—almost as common as forgetting. They also found that the frequency of both false memories and forgetting increased as the patients’ cognition decreased. Given how common they are, the researchers are now working to understand the clinical impact of false memories in daily life. The novel false memory questionnaire they developed may be a valuable tool for clinicians and researchers.
Detailed analyses of the data showed that, whereas the forgetting prevalence ranged from 69 to 96 percent in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, the false memory prevalence ranged from 53 to 90 percent. In mild cognitive impairment forgetting ranged from 25 to 80 percent and false memories from 7 to 64 percent. In healthy older adults forgetting ranged from 11 to 46 percent and false memories from 7 to 33 percent. Lastly, family members were less likely to know about how often their loved ones experienced false memories compared to forgetting, suggesting that false memories may be even more prevalent than reported here.
“This study confirmed our clinical experience, that false memories are extremely common in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and the pre-Alzheimer’s condition of mild cognitive impairment,” said Dr. Andrew Budson, Chief of Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology at VA Boston, Associate Director for Research at the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Professor of Neurology and senior author of the study. “Families and clinicians need to be aware of false memories in order to provide the best care, and researchers need to work on developing new medications to reduce not only forgetting but also false memories.”