Alzheimer's Patients can remember.
Alzheimer's Reading Room
What they remember is stored in their brain before the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
How to Get Answers To Your Questions About Alzheimer's and Dementia
Listen to the podcast. Or read on below.
Alzheimer's patients don't remember the recent past, or much of the now as dementia progresses in their brain.
Here is a good article by Carole Larkin that describes how memory works in dementia patients.
The brain of an Alzheimer's patient works the same way a computer works. Memories are stored in little files in the brain. The memories that are best remembered have strong emotions attached to them. Once the brain losses the ability to store new memories those memories are for the most part lost.
One night I was sitting with my mother at the kitchen table and we had just finished eating. I asked her, mom, do you remember where you went to first grade. She answered without hesitation - Saint Monica's. Saint Monica's was located in south Philadelphia.
Just so you know I asked this question in 2010! My mother had already scored a 14 on the MMSE an indication that she was already in the moderate to severe stage of Alzheimer's.
I should add that during the conversation my mother asked - are we going to eat today? Her empty plate was sitting right in front of her. She had already forgotten she had just eaten.
Another time, my mother started to sing a song that I had never heard before in my life. A little reseearch determinded that the song had first been made popular by Billie Holiday in 1932. My mother was 16 years old at the time. My mother sang this song in the most beautiful voice you ever heard.
If you would have asked me if this was possible before it happened I would have told you - Not a Ghost of a Chance.
Related Articles
Dementia Care
Memory Care
How to Get a Dementia Patient to Do What You Want Them to Do
The Connection Between UTI and Worsening Dementia
Bob DeMarco is the Founder of the Alzheimer's Reading Room (ARR).
The Alzheimer's Reading Room contains more than 5,000 articles and has been published daily since July, 2009.
You are reading original content the Alzheimer's Reading Room
"The Alzheimer's Reading Room is the one place on the Internet, and in the world, where those who are searching for information, encouragement and guidance can find the help they need from people who completely understand their questions and their journey".
Tom and Karen Brenner, Montessori Gerontologists, Brenner Pathways