impact of alzheimer's on older people (memory)

• alzheimer's is a progressive, degenerative neurological disorder which affect 1 in 20 people. generally, the common onset age is around 65 years old. characterised by progressive memory loss, concentration loss and confusion.
• deteriorates new memories, while older information is preserved. central executive is affected, so working memory processes impacted and dual tasks particularly difficult.
• the patient may lose the ability to use knowledge stored in semantic memory and also autobiographical memories. the way that the disease affects the brain area closely involved in semantic memory. the more damage, the more significant the deficits.
• Baddeley conducted a series of tasks on individuals with Alzheimer's disease and controls. involving looking for the letter "Z" among easy and difficult distractor letters. a dual task procedure was also utilised.
• participants with Alzheimer's performed worse in the difficult distractor tasks and were also very impaired on dual task procedures. this demonstrates Alzheimer's affects dual attention tasks.