Test-retest reliability of fMRI verbal episodic memory paradigms in healthy older adults and in persons with mild cognitive impairment

BackgroundProspective studies suggest that tea consumption may decrease the risk for cognitive impairment in late life. However, little research has examined the association between tea consumption and cognitive performance across multiple domains. In addition, no research has examined the benefit of tea consumption on cognitive performance among older adults with existing impairment.AimsThe current study examined the association between tea consumption and performance on tasks of global cognitive function, episodic memory and executive function in cognitively healthy (CH) older adults and older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).MethodsThe analytical sample included 1849 community-dwelling older adults from the Shanghai Brain Aging Study (65.6% female, mean age of 69.50 (8.02) years). Following ascertainment of cognitive function, 816 were categorised as MCI. In addition to completion of a demographics questionnaire, participants reported their tea consumption and completed a battery of tests to measure global cognitive function, episodic memory and working memory.ResultsIndependent analyses of covariance revealed a significant association between tea consumption and measures of episodic memory; however, these associations were restricted to CH older adults but not older adults with MCI. Tea consumption was not associated with working memory performance.ConclusionsThe current study suggests that the benefit of tea consumption is restricted to cognitively healthy older adults and does not extend to older adults with MCI.

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The association between depressive and cognitive symptoms in amnestic mild cognitive impairment

International Psychogeriatrics ◽

10.1017/s1041610208007114 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 710-723 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Carol Hudon ◽

Sylvie Belleville ◽

Serge Gauthier

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Depressive Symptoms ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Memory Impairment ◽

Cued Recall ◽

Control Group ◽

Amnestic Mci ◽

Verbal Episodic Memory

ABSTRACTBackground: Depressive symptoms are frequently observed in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, little is known regarding the cognitive characteristics of this important subgroup.Methods: We examined executive functions (controlled inhibition) and verbal episodic memory in 33 healthy older adults (control group), 18 older adults with amnestic MCI plus subclinical depressive symptoms (a-MCI/D+ group), and 26 older adults with amnestic MCI but no depressive symptoms (a-MCI group).Results: Compared to the a-MCI and control groups, patients with a-MCI/D+ showed poor controlled inhibition. Moreover, in verbal episodic memory these patients recalled fewer words than control participants on immediate free, delayed free, and delayed total (free plus cued) recall. Performance on immediate recall suggested a self-retrieval deficit, but delayed performance also revealed the existence of an encoding impairment. In the a-MCI group, participants exhibited normal performance on the executive task, but pervasive memory impairment; the memory deficit concerned free and total recall on both immediate and delayed tasks, suggesting the existence of encoding and self-retrieval disturbances.Conclusions: This study reveals differences between the pattern of cognitive impairment for a-MCI/D+ and a-MCI subgroups particularly at the level of executive capacities. In terms of memory functioning, the differences between the subgroups were more subtle; more studies are needed in order to better characterize the memory impairment of a-MCI/D+ and a-MCI patients.

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IC-P1-062: fMRI activation changes during successful episodic memory encoding and recognition in amnestic mild cognitive impairment relative to cognitively healthy older adults

Alzheimer s & Dementia ◽

10.1016/j.jalz.2008.05.2504 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. T33-T33

Author(s):

Mehul A. Trivedi ◽

Christopher M. Murphy ◽

Celine Goetz ◽

Raj C. Shah ◽

John D.E. Gabrieli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Episodic Memory ◽

Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Memory Encoding ◽

Healthy Older Adults

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Repetition Priming in Individuals with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Dementia: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Neuropsychology Review ◽

10.1007/s11065-021-09504-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Liselotte De Wit ◽

Vitoria Piai ◽

Pilar Thangwaritorn ◽

Brynn Johnson ◽

Deirdre O’Shea ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Older Adults ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Repetition Priming ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Amnestic Mci ◽

Standard Mean Difference ◽

Priming Paradigm

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.

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Five-Year Change in Body Mass Index Predicts Conversion to Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia Only in APOE ɛ4 Allele Carriers

Journal of Alzheimer s Disease ◽

10.3233/jad-201360 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Kylie R. Kadey ◽

John L. Woodard ◽

Allison C. Moll ◽

Kristy A. Nielson ◽

J. Carson Smith ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Body Mass Index ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Body Mass ◽

Carrier Status ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

E4 Allele ◽

Lifestyle Risk

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.

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

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00402 ◽

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.

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