Functions of autobiographical remembering and its relation to affective neuroscience personality traits in healthy and pathological aging

Autobiographical memory (ABM) refers to our personal past experiences. How we remember these experiences has been widely studied for decades, whereas why we remember those memories (i.e., functions of ABM) has gained attention only recently. However, functions of autobiographical remembering in people with dementia has been completely unexplored. This study aims to investigate ABM functions in patients with episodic memory deficits (i.e., patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and early-stage Alzheimer's Dementia) as well as cognitively healthy individuals, besides the relationship between affective neuroscience personality traits and ABM functions in these groups. Thirty-six patients and 26 cognitively healthy older adults were asked to fill in Brief Form of Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (BANPS) and Autobiographical Memory Functions Scale (AMFS). We found that age of the participants was negatively correlated with their scores on SEEK (i.e., curiosity) and PLAY (i.e., playfulness) subscales of BANPS, as well as with their frequency of remembering their memories to understand themselves better; while education was positively related to SEEK. Also, SEEK was positively related to participants' frequency of remembering their memories to take lessons from their pasts; while CARE (i.e., how affectionate the person is towards the others) was positively related to frequency of remembering the past on a hint basis. Even though not conclusive, our results suggest that there might be differences in personality characteristics and ABM functions between healthy individuals and patients with episodic memory decline.