Abstract:

Mild Alzheimer's disease is accompanied by prospective memory impairment with different levels. Previous studies have investigated what extent an association between mild Alzheimer's disease and prospective memory impairment. On this basis researchers made a comparison of the association with other three types of association observed, that is, other cognitive impairments - prospective memory decline, mild Alzheimer's disease - retrospective memory impairment, and between mild Alzheimer's disease - genetic expression. In addition, other studies have explored how to promote the prospective memory of the patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. To get a clearer understand of the association between mild Alzheimer's disease and prospective memory impairment, further research should be concerned with the variables of severity of disease and type of prospective-memory task. Furthermore, research need to assess the neural mechanism of prospective-memory impairment in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease by using of ERPs and fMRI techniques.

Key words: memory, prospective memory, Alzheimer's disease, aging