14
Rotman Research Institute Annual Report 2015 - 2016
BRAIN HEALTH MAINTENANCE &
REHABILITATION
Dr. Brian Levine
Senior Scientist, RRI
Professor
Departments of Psychology &
Medicine
University of Toronto
Research Focus: Memory & Cognitive
Rehabilitation
Exploring how differences in memory abilities impact aging and neurodegenerative diseases
When most people think back on important life events, they remember details of the situation – such as what
their partner wore to dinner or the thoughts and feelings they had that evening. But there are some healthy
individuals who never remember those par ticulars, remembering only an event's basic facts. This syndrome,
Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM), was recently discovered by Dr. Brian Levine and his
team.
Many people with SDAM are highly educated and hold professional occupations. Alt hough they can learn
normally, they lack the ability to richly re - experience events from their own lives. To compensate, they rely on
rehearsed factual knowledge about themselves or others. Levine and his colleagues found a smaller than
average right hippo campus in these individuals. The right hippocampus is known to play a critical role in
recollecting events , as well as in visual imagery, an ability also reduced in people with SDAM.
This research received extensive media coverage and Dr. Levine was recent ly awarded a Canadian Institutes
of Health Research Project Grant to continue his study of people's memory abilities and the relationship to
cognitive changes in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
"People differ in their memory abilities, but no one ha s examined how these differences relate to memory
changes with aging, including changes that may occur in mild cognitive impairment, which often converts to
Alzheimer's disease," says Dr. Levine.
His work could impact evaluations used by memory clinics to identify memory problems, since every person
arrives with different levels of memory abilities. The study could also lead to identifying potential strategies to
help older adults better cope with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.
"Having a good m emory may protect one from changes due to neurodegenerative disease, but it is also
possible that those with worse memory have already developed skills to compensate for pathological
changes," says Dr. Levine. "If this is the case, these individuals may be more resilient to memory changes
caused by dementia."
