The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	New horizon of neuropsychological researches -Crisis perceptibility in dementia-
Language	J
AuthorList	Makoto Iwata
Affiliation	Tokyo Women's Medical University
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 27 (3), 189-195, 2011
Received
Accepted
Abstract	When the East Japan great earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011, most of the people in Tokyo metropolitan area experienced a great fear and tried to shelter themselves in various ways. And even several months after the earthquake, whole process of their behavior could be vividly recalled as a fearful episode. Mildly demented patients behaved themselves quite as normal non-demented people, and they could recall the fearful experience of the great earthquake as vividly as the non-demented. Severely demented patients, however, expressed no fear during the earthquake and did not show any spontaneous sheltering behavior. And moreover, they could not recall the memory of the great earthquake at all. These findings revealed that crisis perceptibility is very lowered in demented patients, who are, therefore, one of the most vulnerable subjects in case of big disasters. Investigations on the crisis perceptibility in dementia is very important from a standpoint of crisis management of demented people, and might be a very important new field of neuropsychological researches.
Keywords	dementia, fear, sheltering behavior, memory