TY - JOUR
T1 - A Novel Cognitive Stress Test for the Detection of Preclinical Alzheimer Disease
T2 - Discriminative Properties and Relation to Amyloid Load
AU - Loewenstein, David A.
AU - Curiel, Rosie E.
AU - Greig, Maria T.
AU - Bauer, Russell M.
AU - Rosado, Marian
AU - Bowers, Dawn
AU - Wicklund, Meredith
AU - Crocco, Elizabeth
AU - Pontecorvo, Michael
AU - Joshi, Abhinay D.
AU - Rodriguez, Rosemarie
AU - Barker, Warren W.
AU - Hidalgo, Jacqueline
AU - Duara, Ranjan
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by 1 R01 AG047649-01A1 (to DL, principle investigator), the Ed and Ethel Moore Research Program ( ALZ002 to DL, principle investigator), and Avid A–14 award from the National Institutes of Health (to RD, principle investigator).
PY - 2016/10/1
Y1 - 2016/10/1
N2 - Objective To examine the utility of a novel “cognitive stress test” to detect subtle cognitive impairments and amyloid load within the brains of neuropsychologically normal community-dwelling elders. Methods Participants diagnosed as cognitively normal (CN), subjective memory impairment (SMI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and preclinical mild cognitive impairment (PreMCI) were administered the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scale for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L), a sensitive test of proactive semantic interference (PSI), retroactive semantic interference, and, uniquely, the ability to recover from the effects of PSI. Ninety-three subjects (31 men and 62 women) were recruited from three academic institutions in a research consortium. A subset of these individuals underwent 18F florbetapir positron emission tomography scanning. Relative percentages of impairment for each diagnostic group on the LASSI-L were calculated by χ2 and Fisher's exact tests. Spearman's rho was used to examine associations between amyloid load and different cognitive measures. Results LASSI-L deficits were identified among 89% of those with MCI, 47% with PreMCI, 33% with SMI, and 13% classified as CN. CN subjects had no difficulties with recovery from PSI, whereas SMI, preMCI, and MCI participants evidenced deficits in recovery from PSI effects. Among a subgroup of participants with normal scores on traditional neuropsychological tests, the strong associations were between the failure to recover from the effects of PSI and amyloid load in the brain. Conclusion Failure to recover or compensate for the effects of PSI on the LASSI-L distinguishes the LASSI-L from other widely used neuropsychological tests and appears to be sensitive to subtle cognitive impairments and increasing amyloid load.
AB - Objective To examine the utility of a novel “cognitive stress test” to detect subtle cognitive impairments and amyloid load within the brains of neuropsychologically normal community-dwelling elders. Methods Participants diagnosed as cognitively normal (CN), subjective memory impairment (SMI), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and preclinical mild cognitive impairment (PreMCI) were administered the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scale for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L), a sensitive test of proactive semantic interference (PSI), retroactive semantic interference, and, uniquely, the ability to recover from the effects of PSI. Ninety-three subjects (31 men and 62 women) were recruited from three academic institutions in a research consortium. A subset of these individuals underwent 18F florbetapir positron emission tomography scanning. Relative percentages of impairment for each diagnostic group on the LASSI-L were calculated by χ2 and Fisher's exact tests. Spearman's rho was used to examine associations between amyloid load and different cognitive measures. Results LASSI-L deficits were identified among 89% of those with MCI, 47% with PreMCI, 33% with SMI, and 13% classified as CN. CN subjects had no difficulties with recovery from PSI, whereas SMI, preMCI, and MCI participants evidenced deficits in recovery from PSI effects. Among a subgroup of participants with normal scores on traditional neuropsychological tests, the strong associations were between the failure to recover from the effects of PSI and amyloid load in the brain. Conclusion Failure to recover or compensate for the effects of PSI on the LASSI-L distinguishes the LASSI-L from other widely used neuropsychological tests and appears to be sensitive to subtle cognitive impairments and increasing amyloid load.
KW - LASSI-L
KW - MCI
KW - PreMCI
KW - amyloid
KW - proactive interference recovery
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jagp.2016.02.056
DO - 10.1016/j.jagp.2016.02.056
M3 - Article
C2 - 27160985
AN - SCOPUS:84994908274
VL - 24
SP - 804
EP - 813
JO - American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
JF - American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry
SN - 1064-7481
IS - 10
ER -