失憶型輕度認知障礙患者與正常老年人於自傳式記憶表現的性別差異

Abstract

研究顯示，年輕人族群中自傳記憶表現的顯著性別差異，顯示女性的記憶特異性比男性更高。然而，在沒有認知障礙的健康老年人中並未一致發現此女性優勢，且是否於患有失憶型輕度認知障礙的老年人中也存在著此種女性優勢尚未清楚。我們招募了32名失憶型輕度認知障礙症長者與35名健康對照組，使用自傳式訪談檢驗兩組之間的自傳式事件，將記憶細節分為對應至情節細節的內部細節，以及對應至非情節細節的外部細節，用以評估兩組之間在特定自傳式事件中的記憶特異性之性別差異。結果顯示，在健康老年人中未觀察到性別差異。此外，相比於男性患者，女性患者在接受提示之前回憶出較多外部細節，並在提示後回憶出更多內部和外部細節。在同一性別族群中，女性患者的記憶特異性低於健康女性，且女性群體的記憶表現之差異大於男性群體中的差異。總結來說，我們研究結果支持女性的自傳式記憶退化速度可能比男性更快，且女性可能處於較後期的失智進展階段。最後，在評估自傳記憶時考慮性別差異是重要的。

Significant sex differences in autobiographical memory (AM) have been found among younger aged cohorts, showing a higher memory specificity in females compared to males. However, such female advantage was not consistently reported in older adults without cognitive impairment, and it remains unknown whether this advantage extends to older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). This study evaluated sex differences in older adults with and without aMCI in memory specificity of specific autobiographical events by employing the Autobiographical Interview, which categorized memory details into internal and external details, referred as episodic and non-episodic details, respectively. Thirty-five individuals with aMCI and 52 healthy controls were recruited. The results revealed no sex differences were observed in healthy older adults. Moreover, when compared to men with aMCI, women with aMCI recalled more external details prior to receiving retrieval support of specific probes, and more internal and external details after the probes. Within the same sex cohorts, women with aMCI exhibited a lower memory specificity than women without aMCI, and the differences were larger than those in the male cohorts. In conclusion, our findings indicated that the decline rate of AM may be steeper in women, and that women may be in a more advanced stage of dementia progression. Considering sex differences when evaluating AM is important.