Application of the Japanese Verbal Learning Test to Patients With Alzheimer's Disease in the Early Stage

Introduction: This study aimed to investigate the mechanism of memory function in the context of explicit memory in early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD) using the short-form Japanese Verbal Learning Test (JVLT-9).

Methods: Participants were 20 patients with early-stage AD and a control group of 23 healthy older adults (normal controls: NC), each of whom was administered the JVLT-9, which is a verbal list learning task used to assess explicit memory comprehensively. Between-group differences for each score were investigated using the Mann-Whitney U test. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed for the number of correct recalls by group (AD/NC) × JVLT-9 task. In addition, the AD group was divided into a CDR 0.5 group and a CDR 1.0 group, and it was performed as a group (CDR 0.5/1.0) × JVLT-9 task two-way ANOVA.

Results: The results demonstrated that the AD group had lower immediate recall, learning rate, semantic clustering, and recognition discrimination and significantly higher intrusion errors compared to the NC group. Further, JVLT-9 recall and recognition rates were found to be lower with higher CDR (an index of dementia severity).

Conclusion: These results are largely consistent with the features of explicit memory in AD reported in the English version, confirming the clinical utility of the JVLT-9 as a test of explicit memory function.