Implicit and explicit memory in healthy older aduls with metabolic disorders produced by the diabetes mellitus type 2.

Abstract

The present study investigated whether implicit memory for words is spared in normal aging and in older patients with diabetes mellitus. The study also examined the possible dissociation between two ways to accessing previously encoded information, implicitly and explicitly. Similar word repetition priming was found in the three groups that participated in the study (young adults, older healthy adults and diabetic patients). In contrast, the groups differed significantly in explicit recognition. Explicit memory was impaired in diabetic patients compared to healthy older adults. Moreover, young adults performed better than the two older groups. The preservation of visual word priming in the diabetic patients supports the idea that implicit memory is mediated by a perceptual memory system different from the medial-temporal system underlying explicit recognition.