Recall and Recognition Discriminability in Parkinson’s Disease and Huntington’s Disease

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD) are two neurodegenerative diseases affecting frontal-striatal function and memory ability. Studies using the original California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to examine recall and recognition abilities between these groups have produced mixed findings. Some found that individuals with HD demonstrate worse recall and recognition than those with PD, whereas others reported comparable performance. OBJECTIVE: We utilized multiple indices of recall and recognition discriminability, provided by the second and third editions of the CVLT (CVLT-II and CVLT-3, respectively), that allow for a more thorough assessment of more nuanced aspects of verbal memory function. METHODS: We examined differences between individuals with PD (n = 72) and those with HD (n = 77) on CVLT-II indices of recall discriminability (immediate, short delay free and cued, long delay free and cued) and recognition discriminability (total, source, semantic, and novel) using standardized scores while controlling for education and Dementia Rating Scale-2 scores. RESULTS: The HD group performed significantly worse than the PD group on all measures of recall and recognition discriminability (ps < 0.05), and group differences were associated with large Cohen's d effect sizes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that individuals with HD are more impaired than individuals with PD in more nuanced aspects of recall and recognition memory function. These CVLT indices yield more thorough assessments of recall and recognition memory function and have the potential to improve efforts to characterize and distinguish profiles of memory loss in different neurodegenerative populations, including PD and HD.