Affiliations: [a]
University of Lille, CNRS, CHU Lille, UMR 9193 - SCALab - Sciences Cognitives et Sciences Affectives, Lille, France
| [b] Department of Geriatrics, Tourcoing Hospital, France
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Mohamad El Haj, Laboratoire SCALab UMR CNRS 9193 - University of Lille Nord de France, Domaine du Pont de Bois, 59653 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France. Tel.: +33 3 20 41 72 05; Fax: +33 3 20 41 60 32; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: We investigated whether an external memory aid (i.e., Google Calendar) would alleviate prospective memory compromise in a patient with mild Alzheimer’s disease. The patient was asked in the baseline phase to perform three prospective targeted events (e.g., attending her weekly bridge game at the community club) and three prospective control events (e.g., buying her weekly magazine). The same six prospective events were assessed in the intervention phase but the targeted-events were cued by Google Calendar while the control-events were not. Results showed less omission of the targeted events in the training phase than in the baseline phase, suggesting a positive effect of Google Calendar. This case report offers a unique view into how smartphone calendars may alleviate prospective memory compromise in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, Google Calendar, prospective memory: rehabilitation, smartphones
