Social influence on associative learning: Double dissociation in high-functioning autism, early-stage behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease

When social cognition is impaired, but memory systems are less compromised (HFA and bvFTD), real-life interactions disrupt associative learning; when disease process impairs memory systems but social cognition is relatively intact (early-stage AD), social interactions have a beneficial effect on learning and memory.