scholarly journals Women have Farther to Fall: Gender Differences Between Normal Elderly and Alzheimer's Disease in Verbal Memory Engender Better Detection of Alzheimer's Disease in Women

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 654-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Chapman ◽  
Mark Mapstone ◽  
Margaret N. Gardner ◽  
Tiffany C. Sandoval ◽  
John W. McCrary ◽  
...  

AbstractWe analyzed verbal episodic memory learning and recall using the Logical Memory (LM) subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale-III to determine how gender differences in AD compare to those seen in normal elderly and whether or not these differences impact assessment of AD. We administered the LM to both an AD and a Control group, each comprised of 21 men and 21 women, and found a large drop in performance from normal elders to AD. Of interest was a gender interaction whereby the women's scores dropped 1.6 times more than the men's did. Control women on average outperformed Control men on every aspect of the test, including immediate recall, delayed recall, and learning. Conversely, AD women tended to perform worse than AD men. Additionally, the LM achieved perfect diagnostic accuracy in discriminant analysis of AD versus Control women, a statistically significantly higher result than for men. The results indicate the LM is a more powerful and reliable tool in detecting AD in women than in men. (JINS, 2011, 17, 654–662)

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Bittner ◽  
V. Bittner ◽  
M. W. Riepe

In the continuum of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and normal controls, a possible association of verbal memory and endogenous estradiol (E2) levels was investigated. Verbal episodic memory was measured with a german version of the California verbal memory test (CVLT). Results were controlled for apolipoprotein E (ApoE) phenotype. We studied 37 controls, 32 MCIs and 117 ADs. Groups differed in all trials of the CVLT and in E2levels . E2 levels differed significantly between groups only among females . In females correcting for age and ApoE, there was an overall correlation between CVLT delayed recall and level of E2  . Stepwise regression analyses found E2level to be a significant predictor for CVLT delayed recall . It may be concluded that lower E2levels occur more in the course of the disease than may be considered as a risk factor per se.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOEL H. KRAMER ◽  
NORBERT SCHUFF ◽  
BRUCE R. REED ◽  
DAN MUNGAS ◽  
AN-TAO DU ◽  
...  

This study tested the hypothesis that the hippocampus has a relatively specific role in retaining information over delays. Thirty-seven subjects with probable Alzheimer's disease were evaluated with a verbal memory task and structural MRI. Cortical gray matter but not hippocampal volume predicted immediate free recall. In contrast, hippocampal volume was the best predictor of how well information was retained over a delay, even after controlling for levels of immediate recall. Results suggest that the role of the hippocampus is relatively specific to the consolidation of new memories. (JINS, 2004, 10, 639–643.)


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardino A Digma ◽  
John R Madsen ◽  
Robert A Rissman ◽  
Diane M Jacobs ◽  
James B Brewer ◽  
...  

Abstract In this study, we aimed to assess whether women are able to withstand more tau before exhibiting verbal memory impairment. Using data from 121 amyloid-β-positive Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative participants, we fit a linear model with Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test score as the response variable and tau-PET standard uptake value ratio as the predictor and took the residuals as an estimate of verbal memory reserve for each subject. Women demonstrated higher reserve (i.e. residuals), whether the Learning (t = 2.78, P = 0.006) or Delay (t = 2.14, P = 0.03) score from the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test was used as a measure of verbal memory ability. To validate these findings, we examined 662 National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center participants with a C2/C3 score (Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease) at autopsy. We stratified our National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center sample into Braak 1/2, Braak 3/4 and Braak 5/6 subgroups. Within each subgroup, we compared Logical Memory scores between men and women. Men had worse verbal memory scores within the Braak 1/2 (Logical Memory Immediate: β = −5.960 ± 1.517, P < 0.001, Logical Memory Delay: β = −5.703 ± 1.677, P = 0.002) and Braak 3/4 (Logical Memory Immediate: β = −2.900 ± 0.938, P = 0.002, Logical Memory Delay: β = −2.672 ± 0.955, P = 0.006) subgroups. There were no sex differences in Logical Memory performance within the Braak 5/6 subgroup (Logical Memory Immediate: β = −0.314 ± 0.328, P = 0.34, Logical Memory Delay: β = −0.195 ± 0.287, P = 0.50). Taken together, our results point to a sex-related verbal memory reserve.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. 1070-1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Kapogiannis ◽  
Mohamad El Haj

Objectives: Research suggests beneficial effects of minimal interference on item memory in mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We conducted a study to test whether these beneficial effects extend to source memory, i.e., the ability to remember the episodic context in which an information was previously acquired. Method: Twenty-six mild AD participants and 28 controls manipulated six objects or watched the experimenter manipulating six other objects. After immediate item recall (“what were the items?”) and source recall (“by whom the items were previously manipulated?”), an interference or a minimal interference condition was administrated. In the interference condition, participants were assessed with neuropsychological tests for 10 min. In the minimal interference condition, they rested alone in a dark and quiet room for 10 minutes. Both interference and minimal interference conditions were followed by the delayed recall, on which participants were asked to remember the previously-presented objects and their source. Results: Higher item memory was observed following minimal interference than following interference in AD participants (p < .01) and controls (p < .01). Also, AD participants demonstrated higher item memory on immediate recall than following interference (p < .001) or minimal interference (p < .001); controls also demonstrated higher item memory on immediate recall than following interference (p < .001) or minimal interference (p < .001). Considering source memory, similar source memory was observed following interference and minimal interference in AD participants (p > .1) and controls (p > .1). Also, AD participants demonstrated higher source memory on immediate recall than following interference (p < .001) or minimal interference (p < .001); controls also demonstrated higher source memory on immediate recall than following interference (p < .001) or minimal interference (p < .001). Conclusion: Failures of hippocampus-dependent associative or consolidation processes in AD may preclude benefits of minimal interference for source memory. Nevertheless, AD patients may show some capacity to retain simple material, should the material presentation be followed by short delays that are free of further stimuli.


1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 133-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kessler ◽  
M. Bley ◽  
R. Mielke ◽  
E. Kalbe

Reduced word production in verbal fluency tasks is a sensitive indicator for brain damage. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are supposedly more affected in semantic than in letter fluency, which is probably resulting from partially destroyed structure of semantic knowledge, whereas in letter fluency tasks the patients can use phonemic cues for searching. In this study, 21 patients with probable AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA criteria were examined on a verbal fluency task with F, A, S as initial letters, and a supermarket task. Performances were compared with a control group. Patients with AD showed lower word rate in all tasks than the control group. The difference was most significant in the supermarket task. Both groups produced most of the words in the supermarket task, followed by S, A and F. They both showed a percentuallikely distribution pattern of items into different supermarket categories. The items of the supermarket task were mostly ranged in clusters (patients with AD 70%, control group 83%). Patients with AD, however, on average, used fewer categories which they also filled with fewer items. In the F, A, S test, patients with AD mainly produced nouns, whereas the control group named nearly twice as many adjectives and verbs. In patients with AD word generation was highly correlated with degree of dementia, free recall of a verbal memory task, and the Token test. Low word production and qualitatively changed output in patients with AD might relate to an inefficient searching strategy, attentional deficits and/or degraded semantic knowledge.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 689-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOANNE M. HAMILTON ◽  
DAVID P. SALMON ◽  
DOUGLAS GALASKO ◽  
DEAN C. DELIS ◽  
LAWRENCE A. HANSEN ◽  
...  

Little is known about possible differences in the memory deficits that occur in Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). We compared 24 autopsy-confirmed DLB and 24 age-, education-, and MMSE-matched autopsy-confirmed AD patients on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) and the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Logical Memory subtest. The DLB and AD groups were similarly impaired on CVLT Total Learning (Trials 1–5) and Long Delayed Free Recall, but the DLB group demonstrated relative improvement in Savings scores and on recognition testing compared to the AD group. Likewise, the patient groups were equally impaired on Logical Memory immediate and delayed recall, but the DLB group's Saving scores were significantly better than those of the AD patients. These results indicate that while both DLB and AD patients exhibit significant memory impairment, the ability to consolidate information may be less severely impaired in DLB patients than in AD patients. (JINS, 2004, 10, 689–697.)


Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1845
Author(s):  
Roberto Aquilani ◽  
Alfredo Costa ◽  
Roberto Maestri ◽  
Matteo Cotta Ramusino ◽  
Antonia Pierobon ◽  
...  

Conflicting results about alterations of plasma amino acid (AA) levels are reported in subjects with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The current study aimed to provide more homogeneous AA profiles and correlations between AAs and cognitive tests. Venous plasma AAs were measured in 54 fasting patients with AD (37 males, 17 females; 74.63 ± 8.03 yrs; 3.2 ± 1.9 yrs from symptom onset). Seventeen matched subjects without neurodegenerative symptoms (NNDS) served as a control group (C-NNDS). Patients were tested for short-term verbal memory and attention capacity and stratified for nutritional state (Mini Nutritional Assessment, MNA). Compared to C-NNDS, patients exhibited lower plasma levels of aspartic acid and taurine (p < 0.0001) and higher 3-methylhistidine (p < 0.0001), which were independent of patients’ MNA. In comparison to normonourished AD, the patients at risk of and with malnutrition showed a tendency towards lower ratios of Essential AAs/Total AAs, Branched-chain AAs/Total AAs, and Branched-chain AAs/Essential AAs. Serine and histidine were positively correlated with verbal memory and attention capacity deficits, respectively. Total AAs negatively correlated with attention capacity deficits. Stratifying patients with AD for MNA may identify a dual pattern of altered AAs, one due to AD per se and the other linked to nutritional state. Significant correlations were observed between several AAs and cognitive tests.


2009 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrícia Helena Figueirêdo do Vale ◽  
Lívia Spíndola ◽  
Maira Okada de Oliveira ◽  
Cristiane Garcia da Costa Armentano ◽  
Claudia Sellitto Porto ◽  
...  

Abstract Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) can be an intermediate state between normality and dementia in some patients. An early diagnosis, through neuropsychological assessment, could identify individuals at risk of developing dementia. Objective: To verify differences in performance on neuropsychological tests among controls, amnestic MCI (aMCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. Methods: Sixty-eight AD patients (mean age 73.77±7.24; mean schooling 9.04±4.83; 40 women and 28 men), 34 aMCI patients (mean age 74.44±7.05; mean schooling 12.35±4.01; 20 women) and 60 controls (mean age 68.90±7.48; mean schooling 10.72±4.74; 42 women) were submitted to a neuropsychological assessment composed of tasks assessing executive functions, language, constructive abilities, reasoning and memory. Results: There were statistically significant differences in performance across all tests among control, aMCI and AD groups, and also between only controls and AD patients. On comparing control and aMCI groups, we found statistically significant differences in memory tasks, except for immediate recall of Visual Reproduction. There were also statistically significant differences between aMCI and AD groups on tasks of constructive and visuoperceptual abilities, attention, language and memory, except for delayed recall of Visual Reproduction. Conclusions: Neuropsychological assessment was able to discriminate aMCI from AD patients in almost all tests except for delayed recall of Visual Reproduction, visual organization (Hooper) and executive functions (WCST); and discriminate controls from AD patients in all tests, and controls from aMCI patients in all memory tests except for immediate recall of Visual Reproduction.


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