scholarly journals Translational MRI Volumetry with NeuroQuant: Effects of Version and Normative Data on Relationships with Memory Performance in Healthy Older Adults and Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 1499-1510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julija Stelmokas ◽  
Lance Yassay ◽  
Bruno Giordani ◽  
Hiroko H. Dodge ◽  
Ivo D. Dinov ◽  
...  
2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICIA L. EBERT ◽  
NICOLE D. ANDERSON

AbstractThis study investigated memory interference in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and normal aging. Participants were 27 young adults, 44 healthy older adults, and 15 older adults with aMCI. Memory interference was examined on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and on a modified AB-AC paradigm. Despite significant differences in memory performance on the CVLT, interference measures on this test did not distinguish individuals with aMCI and healthy older adults. The AB-AC task involved first learning a list (AB list) of 12 semantically related word pairs (e.g., knee-bone). Twenty minutes later, a second list (AC list) was learned in which the same stimulus words were paired with new response words (e.g., knee-bend). Both lists were repeated until 100% accurate recall was achieved. Finally, participants recalled the first (AB) list. Proactive interference (PI) was greater among older than younger adults, and greater still among individuals with aMCI, but the older and aMCI groups showed similar levels of retroactive interference. This study suggests that PI contributes to the memory deficits seen in aMCI and that tests sensitive to PI may assist in the early identification of aMCI. Memory interventions aimed at alleviating PI may improve memory functioning in individuals with aMCI. (JINS, 2009, 15, 83–93.)


2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 704-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOBI LUBINSKY ◽  
JILL B. RICH ◽  
NICOLE D. ANDERSON

AbstractErrorless learning is an intervention that benefits memory performance in healthy older adults and a variety of clinical populations. A limitation of the errorless learning technique is that it is passive and does not involve elaborative processing. We report two studies investigating the added benefits of elaborative, self-generated learning to the errorless learning advantage. We also explored the mnemonic mechanisms of the errorless learning advantage. In both studies, older adults and individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) completed four encoding conditions representing the crossing of errorless/errorful learning and self-generated/experimenter-provided learning. Self-generation enhanced the errorless learning benefit in cued recall and cued recognition, but not in free recall or item recognition. An errorless learning advantage was observed for priming of target words, and this effect was amplified for participants with aMCI after self-generated learning. Moreover, the aMCI group showed significant priming of prior self-generated errors. These results demonstrate that self-generation enhances the errorless learning advantage when study and test conditions match. The data also support the argument that errorless learning eliminates the misleading implicit influence of prior errors, as well as the need for explicit memory processes to distinguish targets from errors. (JINS, 2009, 15, 704–716.)


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Alexandra L. Clark ◽  
Alexandra J. Weigand ◽  
Kelsey R. Thomas ◽  
Seraphina K. Solders ◽  
Lisa Delano-Wood ◽  
...  

Background: Age-related cerebrovascular and neuroinflammatory processes have been independently identified as key mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), although their interactive effects have yet to be fully examined. Objective: The current study examined 1) the influence of pulse pressure (PP) and inflammatory markers on AD protein levels and 2) links between protein biomarkers and cognitive function in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: This study included 218 ADNI (81 cognitively normal [CN], 137 MCI) participants who underwent lumbar punctures, apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping, and cognitive testing. Cerebrospinal (CSF) levels of eight pro-inflammatory markers were used to create an inflammation composite, and amyloid-beta 1–42 (Aβ 42), phosphorylated tau (p-tau), and total tau (t-tau) were quantified. Results: Multiple regression analyses controlling for age, education, and APOE ɛ4 genotype revealed significant PP x inflammation interactions for t-tau (B = 0.88, p = 0.01) and p-tau (B = 0.84, p = 0.02); higher inflammation was associated with higher levels of tau within the MCI group. However, within the CN group, analyses revealed a significant PP x inflammation interaction for Aβ 42 (B = –1.01, p = 0.02); greater inflammation was associated with higher levels of Aβ 42 (indicative of lower cerebral amyloid burden) in those with lower PP. Finally, higher levels of tau were associated with poorer memory performance within the MCI group only (p s <  0.05). Conclusion: PP and inflammation exert differential effects on AD CSF proteins and provide evidence that vascular risk is associated with greater AD pathology across our sample of CN and MCI older adults.


Author(s):  
Liselotte De Wit ◽  
Vitoria Piai ◽  
Pilar Thangwaritorn ◽  
Brynn Johnson ◽  
Deirdre O’Shea ◽  
...  

AbstractThe literature on repetition priming in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is inconsistent, with some findings supporting spared priming while others do not. Several factors may explain these inconsistencies, including AD severity (e.g., dementia vs. Mild Cognitive Impairment; MCI) and priming paradigm-related characteristics. This systematic review and meta-analysis provides a quantitative summary of repetition priming in AD. We examined the between-group standard mean difference comparing repetition priming in AD dementia or amnestic MCI (aMCI; presumably due to AD) to controls. Thirty-two studies were selected, including 590 individuals with AD dementia, 267 individuals with amnestic MCI, and 703 controls. Our results indicated that both individuals with aMCI and AD dementia perform worse on repetition priming tasks than cognitively older adults. Paradigm-related moderators suggested that the effect size between studies comparing the combined aMCI or AD dementia group to cognitively healthy older adults was the highest for paradigms that required participants to produce, rather than identify, primes during the test phase. Our results further suggested that priming in AD is impaired for both conceptual and perceptual priming tasks. Lastly, while our results suggested that priming in AD is impaired for priming tasks that require deep processing, we were unable to draw firm conclusions about whether priming is less impaired in aMCI or AD dementia for paradigms that require shallow processing.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Kylie R. Kadey ◽  
John L. Woodard ◽  
Allison C. Moll ◽  
Kristy A. Nielson ◽  
J. Carson Smith ◽  
...  

Background: Body mass index (BMI) has been identified as an important modifiable lifestyle risk factor for dementia, but less is known about how BMI might interact with Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 (APOE ɛ4) carrier status to predict conversion to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between APOE ɛ4 status and baseline (bBMI) and five-year BMI change (ΔBMI) on conversion to MCI or dementia in initially cognitively healthy older adults. Methods: The associations between bBMI, ΔBMI, APOE ɛ4 status, and conversion to MCI or dementia were investigated among 1,289 cognitively healthy elders from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) database. Results: After five years, significantly more carriers (30.6%) converted to MCI or dementia than noncarriers (17.6%), p <  0.001, OR = 2.06. Neither bBMI (OR = 0.99, 95%CI = 0.96–1.02) nor the bBMI by APOE interaction (OR = 1.02, 95%CI = 0.96–1.08) predicted conversion. Although ΔBMI also did not significantly predict conversion (OR = 0.90, 95%CI = 0.78–1.04), the interaction between ΔBMI and carrier status was significant (OR = 0.72, 95%CI = 0.53–0.98). For carriers only, each one-unit decline in BMI over five years was associated with a 27%increase in the odds of conversion (OR = 0.73, 95%CI = 0.57–0.94). Conclusion: A decline in BMI over five years, but not bBMI, was strongly associated with conversion to MCI or dementia only for APOE ɛ4 carriers. Interventions and behaviors aimed at maintaining body mass may be important for long term cognitive health in older adults at genetic risk for AD.


Author(s):  
Alexandre Chauvin ◽  
Shari Baum ◽  
Natalie A. Phillips

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.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Yang Jiang ◽  
Juan Li ◽  
Frederick A. Schmitt ◽  
Gregory A. Jicha ◽  
Nancy B. Munro ◽  
...  

Background: Early prognosis of high-risk older adults for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), using noninvasive and sensitive neuromarkers, is key for early prevention of Alzheimer’s disease. We have developed individualized measures in electrophysiological brain signals during working memory that distinguish patients with aMCI from age-matched cognitively intact older individuals. Objective: Here we test longitudinally the prognosis of the baseline neuromarkers for aMCI risk. We hypothesized that the older individuals diagnosed with incident aMCI already have aMCI-like brain signatures years before diagnosis. Methods: Electroencephalogram (EEG) and memory performance were recorded during a working memory task at baseline. The individualized baseline neuromarkers, annual cognitive status, and longitudinal changes in memory recall scores up to 10 years were analyzed. Results: Seven of the 19 cognitively normal older adults were diagnosed with incident aMCI for a median 5.2 years later. The seven converters’ frontal brainwaves were statistically identical to those patients with diagnosed aMCI (n = 14) at baseline. Importantly, the converters’ baseline memory-related brainwaves (reduced mean frontal responses to memory targets) were significantly different from those who remained normal. Furthermore, differentiation pattern of left frontal memory-related responses (targets versus nontargets) was associated with an increased risk hazard of aMCI (HR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.03, 2.08). Conclusion: The memory-related neuromarkers detect MCI-like brain signatures about five years before diagnosis. The individualized frontal neuromarkers index increased MCI risk at baseline. These noninvasive neuromarkers during our Bluegrass memory task have great potential to be used repeatedly for individualized prognosis of MCI risk and progression before clinical diagnosis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (12) ◽  
pp. 786-792
Author(s):  
Doonyaporn Wongsawaeng ◽  
Orasa Chawalparit ◽  
Siriwan Piyapittayanan ◽  
Tanyaluck Thientunyakit ◽  
Weerasak Muangpaisan ◽  
...  

Objective: Depression among older adults is frequently an early symptom of cognitive decline, and is believed to be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Hippocampal subfield volume loss is found in both mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and major depressive disorder (MDD). We aimed to investigate the potential of MR hippocampal subfield volumetry for discriminating among healthy older adults (HOA) and older adults with MCI or MDD. Materials and Methods: Seventy age-matched subjects (29 non-depressed MCI, 12 MDD, and 29 HOA) underwent 3-Tesla MR imaging (MRI) with high-resolution 3D-T1W-TFE whole brain. Hippocampal subfield volumetric measurements were performed using FreeSurfer software to distinguish among MCI, MDD, and HOA. Subgroup analysis with amyloid PET result was also performed.Results: Significantly smaller bilateral hippocampal tail volume was observed in MCI compared to HOA (p=0.004 and p=0.04 on the left and right side, respectively). The same comparative finding was observed at left HATA (hippocampus-amygdala-transition-area) of MCI (p=0.046). Other regions showed non-significantly smaller size in MCI than in HOA [left molecular layer HP (p=0.06), left whole hippocampus (p=0.06), and left CA1 (p=0.07)]. There was a non-significant trend toward smaller size in almost all 13 subfield hippocampal regions of MCI compared to MDD, even in subgroup analysis with amyloid PET result.Conclusion: MR hippocampal subfield volumetry may have value in routine clinical practice for screening individuals with MCI, and may be a valuable adjunct to amyloid PET study for very early-stage diagnosis of AD.


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