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Anosognosia in Dementia

  • Behavior (H Kirshner, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Progressive decline in memory (and other functions) is the defining feature of late-life dementia but affected individuals are often unaware of this impairment. This article reviews recent research on anosognosia in dementia, including methods of assessing anosognosia, its prevalence and developmental course in dementia, its occurrence in different forms of dementia, neuroimaging findings, and hypothesized component mechanisms. The results suggest that anosognosia is eventually exhibited by nearly all persons with dementia. Its occurrence is robustly associated with common dementia-related pathologies and damage to memory and self-referential brain networks and their interconnections.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01AG34374, R01AG33678, P30AG10161, RF1AG22018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, 600 South Paulina Street, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Robert S. Wilson, Joel Sytsma, Lisa L. Barnes & Patricia A. Boyle

  2. Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Robert S. Wilson & Lisa L. Barnes

  3. Department of Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, USA

    Robert S. Wilson, Lisa L. Barnes & Patricia A. Boyle

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  1. Robert S. Wilson
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  2. Joel Sytsma
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Correspondence to Robert S. Wilson.

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Robert S. Wilson, Joel Sytsma, Lisa L. Barnes, and Patricia A. Boyle declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Wilson, R.S., Sytsma, J., Barnes, L.L. et al. Anosognosia in Dementia. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 16, 77 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-016-0684-z

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