Hello everybody, I will try to briefly present the theme of my research work in the context of the Master of Cognitive and Clinical Psychology at the University of Nantes. Under the supervision of university professor Mohamad El Haj, and in collaboration with three other master colleagues, we studied the use of olfactory stimulation in the context of Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease which affects brain through various biological and neurophysiological processes. This disease is characterised by an impairment of memory, including autobiographical memory. Autobiographical memory corresponds to the memories we have of our entire life, which allow us to construct our life story and a sense of identity of our own. To summarise, this memory is divided into two components. A semantic component, which is defined as general knowledge about ourselves (my name is..), the world (peas are green), as well as events in our lives that we have repeated many times (with my parents, we went on holiday to the mountains every year). On the other hand, the episodic component corresponds to the memories we have of our lives, structured by a well-defined spatio-temporal context (on my eighth birthday, we were in the Alps), and to the phenomenological experience lived during these events (I was angry at my sister for eating the whole cake). Studies show that in a moderate stage of the disease, the most affected aspect of autobiographical memory is the episodic component and in particular the contextual elements of memories (where, when and with whom did the recalled event take place?). The decline in autobiographical memory leads to a progressive loss of a sense of identity and continuity in the life story in Alzheimer’s patients. The literature shows that olfactory stimulation improves autobiographical recall and in particular the specificity of memories in Alzheimer’s patients.
In this research work, we wanted to study more precisely the effect of olfactory stimulation on the recall of individual contextual elements of autobiographical memories in Alzheimer’s disease. Based on our review of the literature, we put forward several hypotheses concerning the effect of olfactory stimulation on the recall of contextual elements of autobiographical memories in people with Alzheimer’s disease. To test our hypotheses, we recruited participants with Alzheimer’s disease and elderly people without Alzheimer’s disease. In order to obtain a reliable sample, we administered psychometric tests. In this way, we could include participants in one of the groups and assess the severity of the Alzheimer’s disease. In this study, participants were asked to retrieve autobiographical memories in two conditions, with the presence of an olfactory stimulation (lavender essential oil) and without the presence of the olfactory stimulation. To invite participants to retrieve a memory, an instruction was given: “I invite you to tell me a personal memory, the first one that comes to mind, with as many details as possible, such as where did it happen, when did it happen? Who was present? What were your feelings? The first one that crosses your mind. You have two minutes, but we can stop before that if you wish. I am listening to you”. Three questions were then successively asked to the participants: “Can you remind me of when the event took place”, “Where did the event take place”, “Who was present during this event?. For each of the contextual categories, participants were awarded one point for each contextual detail provided.
To conclude, we did not obtain results similar to the literature, due to bias present in our methodology. However, recent research supports the positive effects of olfactory stimulation in people with Alzheimer’s disease. In my opinion, working on this project is really important, although it will not cure Alzheimer’s patients, it will give us a better understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease works. In addition, the memories of our life allow us to build our identity, so reviving them thanks to olfactory stimulation could allow sick people to keep a feeling of belonging as long as possible. This contributes to the well-being of individuals and also the well-being of relatives
Vocabulary :
- Reliable sample = échantillon fiable
- To put forward = proposer
- To award = accorder
- Well-being = bien-être