scholarly journals Genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease, cognition, and mild behavioral impairment in healthy older adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron Creese ◽  
Ryan Arathimos ◽  
Helen Brooker ◽  
Dag Aarsland ◽  
Anne Corbett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Behavioral Impairment ◽  
Healthy Older Adults

scholarly journals An Alzheimer’s Disease Genetic Risk Score Predicts Longitudinal Thinning of Hippocampal Complex Subregions in Healthy Older Adults

eNeuro ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. ENEURO.0098-16.2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa M. Harrison ◽  
Zanjbeel Mahmood ◽  
Edward P. Lau ◽  
Alexandra M. Karacozoff ◽  
Alison C. Burggren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Risk Score ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Genetic Risk Score ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Hippocampal Complex

Partner-Specific Communication Deficits in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Eun Jin Paek ◽  
Si On Yoon
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Sorting Task ◽  
Audience Design ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Design Skills ◽  
Referential Expressions

Purpose Speakers adjust referential expressions to the listeners' knowledge while communicating, a phenomenon called “audience design.” While individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show difficulties in discourse production, it is unclear whether they exhibit preserved partner-specific audience design. The current study examined if individuals with AD demonstrate partner-specific audience design skills. Method Ten adults with mild-to-moderate AD and 12 healthy older adults performed a referential communication task with two experimenters (E1 and E2). At first, E1 and participants completed an image-sorting task, allowing them to establish shared labels. Then, during testing, both experimenters were present in the room, and participants described images to either E1 or E2 (randomly alternating). Analyses focused on the number of words participants used to describe each image and whether they reused shared labels. Results During testing, participants in both groups produced shorter descriptions when describing familiar images versus new images, demonstrating their ability to learn novel knowledge. When they described familiar images, healthy older adults modified their expressions depending on the current partner's knowledge, producing shorter expressions and more established labels for the knowledgeable partner (E1) versus the naïve partner (E2), but individuals with AD were less likely to do so. Conclusions The current study revealed that both individuals with AD and the control participants were able to acquire novel knowledge, but individuals with AD tended not to flexibly adjust expressions depending on the partner's knowledge state. Conversational inefficiency and difficulties observed in AD may, in part, stem from disrupted audience design skills.

Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease Benefit From Audiovisual Speech Cues and Supportive Sentence Context

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Alexandre Chauvin ◽  
Shari Baum ◽  
Natalie A. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Speech Perception ◽  
Sentence Context ◽  
Speech Perception In Noise ◽  
Healthy Older Adults ◽  
Speech Cues

Purpose Speech perception in noise becomes difficult with age but can be facilitated by audiovisual (AV) speech cues and sentence context in healthy older adults. However, individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may present with deficits in AV integration, potentially limiting the extent to which they can benefit from AV cues. This study investigated the benefit of these cues in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), individuals with AD, and healthy older adult controls. Method This study compared auditory-only and AV speech perception of sentences presented in noise. These sentences had one of two levels of context: high (e.g., “Stir your coffee with a spoon”) and low (e.g., “Bob didn't think about the spoon”). Fourteen older controls ( M age = 72.71 years, SD = 9.39), 13 individuals with MCI ( M age = 79.92 years, SD = 5.52), and nine individuals with probable Alzheimer's-type dementia ( M age = 79.38 years, SD = 3.40) completed the speech perception task and were asked to repeat the terminal word of each sentence. Results All three groups benefited (i.e., identified more terminal words) from AV and sentence context. Individuals with MCI showed a smaller AV benefit compared to controls in low-context conditions, suggesting difficulties with AV integration. Individuals with AD showed a smaller benefit in high-context conditions compared to controls, indicating difficulties with AV integration and context use in AD. Conclusions Individuals with MCI and individuals with AD do benefit from AV speech and semantic context during speech perception in noise (albeit to a lower extent than healthy older adults). This suggests that engaging in face-to-face communication and providing ample context will likely foster more effective communication between patients and caregivers, professionals, and loved ones.

scholarly journals Increased Hippocampal Blood Flow in Sedentary Older Adults at Genetic Risk for Alzheimer's Disease

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 809-817 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zvinka Z. Zlatar ◽  
Christina E. Wierenga ◽  
Katherine J. Bangen ◽  
Thomas T. Liu ◽  
Amy J. Jak
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
Genetic Risk

scholarly journals Mild behavioral impairment is associated with atrophy in Alzheimer's disease‐related regions in non‐demented older adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (S6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Matuskova ◽  
Zahinoor Ismail ◽  
Tomas Nikolai ◽  
Hana Markova ◽  
Katerina Cechova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Behavioral Impairment

scholarly journals 1152 Genetic Risk Of Alzheimer’S Disease Is Linked To Short Sleep Duration

SLEEP ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A439-A439
Author(s):  
Y Leng ◽  
K Yaffe ◽  
S Ackley ◽  
M Glymour ◽  
W Brenowitz
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Sleep Duration ◽  
Genetic Risk ◽  
Genetic Risk Score ◽  
Genetic Ancestry ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Short Sleep Duration ◽  
Short Sleep

Abstract Introduction Sleep disturbances including short sleep duration are common in older adults, especially in those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, it is unclear to what extent sleep duration is a manifestation of AD disease process. We examined whether genetic variants related to AD influence sleep duration in middle-aged and older adults and estimated the causal effects of AD on sleep duration using a mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. Methods We examined 406,687 UK Biobank participants with Caucasian genetic ancestry who self-reported sleep duration at baseline (2006-2010). Sleep duration was assessed by asking: “About how many hours sleep do you get in every 24 hours? (please include naps).” A genetic risk score for AD (AD-GRS) was calculated as a weighted sum of 23 previously identified AD-related single nucleotide polymorphisms in individuals of European ancestry. We evaluated whether AD-GRS predicted sleep duration using linear regression, adjusting for age, sex and principle components for genetic ancestry. We also stratified the analysis by age at baseline (≤55y or >55y) and conducted a MR analysis to estimate the effect of AD (ICD-9/10 codes for AD/dementia diagnosis) on sleep duration. Results The participants (aged 56.91±8.00y) had an average sleep duration of 7.2 (Standard deviation [SD]=1.1) hours and AD-GRS of 0.11 (SD=0.40) (range: -1.15~1.85). Higher AD-GRS score predicted shorter sleep duration (b= -0.013, 95%CI:-0.022,-0.005), mainly among those aged over 55y (b= -0.023, 95%CI:-0.034,-0.012) and not in those 55y or younger (b= 0.006, 95%CI:-0.012,0.013); p for interaction by age=0.02. MR analysis using AD-GRS as an instrumental variable suggested that AD was associated with 1.76 hrs (b=-1.76, -2.62~ -0.90) shorter sleep duration in those aged >55y. Conclusion Using a novel analytical approach, we found that higher genetic risk for AD predicted shorter sleep duration among older adults. This suggests shared genetic pathways; the biologic processes that lead to AD may also affect sleep duration. Support Dr. Leng received support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) 1K99AG056598, and from GBHI, Alzheimer’s Association, and Alzheimer’s Society (GBHI ALZ UK-19-591141).

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