Accelerated forgetting in memory clinic patients with subjective cognitive decline: Results from a 7-day follow-up long-term retrieval assessment.

Authors

Ingo Frommann, Selina Vogel, Lena Jansen, Dix Meiberth, Ann-Katrin Schild, Frank Jessen, Susanne Zank, Anja Schneider, Cornelia McCormick, Michael Wagner

Published in

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD. Pages 13872877261490478. Oct 09, 2026. Epub Oct 09, 2026.

Abstract

BackgroundSubjective cognitive decline (SCD) is recognized as an early indicator of preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, individuals with SCD do not exhibit cognitive impairment on standard neuropsychological tests. Accelerated forgetting (AF) has been reported in individuals with preclinical AD and is characterized by intact learning and early retention but impaired retrieval after several days. Currently, AF is not captured by standard neuropsychological testing.ObjectiveThe present study investigated recall performance in memory clinic patients with SCD, without impairment on standard cognitive tests, during a 7-day follow-up telephone assessment for detecting AF.MethodsOne week after completing the neuropsychological assessment, participants underwent a structured telephone-based follow-up interview. This included various measures of verbal and visual memory. AF was operationalized as the rate of forgetting between initial recall and 7-day delayed recall.ResultsData from 35 individuals with SCD, who showed no cognitive impairment on standard tests, and 54 healthy controls (HC) were analyzed. Although there were no significant differences between the groups in learning and short-delay memory performance, after seven days, the SCD group showed lower recall and a higher forgetting rate on the FCSRT-IR free and total recall measures compared to the HC group.ConclusionsAF can be detected using a brief, telephone-based assessment in cognitively unimpaired participants with SCD. It could bridge the gap between subjective and objective memory decline. Further research is necessary to improve potential follow-up assessments in neuropsychological testing and to investigate the link between AF and AD biomarkers and memory decline.

PMID:
42852936
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 09 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.