[Paradoxical lucidity and personal identity in patients with advanced dementia: change of paradigm?]

Abstract

In this article we approach the concept of paradoxical lucidity (LP) (an unexpected, spontaneous, significant and relevant episode of communication or connection) in persons with advanced dementia. The existence of LP could change the paradigm of dementia as a degenerative, chronic, progressive and irreversible disease (where neuronal death plays the leading role), towards a model where functional deficits of neuronal networks acquire importance, which raises new potentially reversible therapeutic and rehabilitative possibilities. We analyze the ethical consequences that these episodes may have with respect to the implicated persons (patients, caregivers and professionals in charge of their care) and try to answer the following question: Do persons with advanced dementia continue to maintain their personal identity despite suffering cognitive impairment so severe?. The LP indicates that this is possible. In this work we make a transversal outline of the different concepts and theories of personal identity in these patients, from different areas of knowledge (philosophy, psychology, neuroscience).

Keywords: Advanced dementia; Conciencia; Consciencie; Demencia avanzada; Identidad personal; Lucidez; Lucidity; Neural networks; Personal identity; Redes neuronales; Reversibilidad.