The Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) provides a useful research tool for investigating retrograde amnesia. Patients who may be very similar on standard memory tests can differ markedly in their autobiographical memory performance.
The test assesses a subject’s recall of facts from their own past life and also assesses a subject’s recall of specific incidents in their earlier life.
Both types of memory are assessed across three broad time bands: childhood, early adult life, and recent facts/incidents. It thus allows a measurement of the pattern of autobiographical memory deficit, and the detection of any temporal gradient in retrograde amnesia.
AMI provides an assessment of a subject’s personal remote memory, in contrast to existing tests which probe memory for public events and personalities.
As such, the test is not dependent on the level of the patient’s habitual interest in current affairs and news events. Furthermore, it does not require regular updating in the same way as remote memory tests based on public events.
AMI has a high interrater reliability and has been validated in four ways. Material on the detailed validation studies is available upon request.
Background
Retrograde amnesia often leads to an impairment of autobiographical memory, the capacity to recollect the facts and incidents of one’s earlier life. Although not measured by standard memory tests, it is valuable to assess autobiographical memory for at least three reasons:
To understand the nature of any memory deficit observed
To allow more adequate counselling
To provide an individual focus for subsequent treatment, such as reminiscence therapy.
Many important clinical disorders give rise to impairment in autobiographical memory. These include the organic amnesic syndrome, dementing disorders, and possibly various psychiatric disorders, including depression and schizophrenia.
The Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) in organic and psychogenic amnesia
Abstract
The Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) is a semi-structured interview, sampling a subject's recollections across three broad time-periods. In patients with organic amnesia or dementia, there is an impairment in recalling both autobiographical facts and incidents, and there is a temporal gradient such that early memories are relatively spared. Correlations with measures of anterograde memory are relatively low, and lesions affecting the frontal lobes, anterior temporal poles, the posterior-medial temporal lobes, or even projections from the occipital lobes, can impair retrieval of autobiographical memories. In schizophrenia, an impairment in retrieving autobiographical incidents, comparable with organic amnesia, has been reported in some patients. However a patient with delusional memories secondary to schizophrenia is cited, in whom AMI performance was normal. Finally, patients with psychogenic amnesia show a variable pattern of performance, but, in general, there is a disproportionate impairment of autobiographical memory, and often an anomalous temporal gradient, which can recover subsequently.