Early detection of Alzheimer's disease: a new working memory paradigm

Toepper, Max; Beblo, Thomas; Thomas, Christine; Drießen, Martin

doi:10.1002/gps.1873

Cited by 22 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, future studies should focus on the question how the neural response to increasing task load is affected by neurodegenerative disorders. In fact, there is evidence that increased task demands provoke a disproportionate performance decline in patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment [ 63 , 64 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trying to Put the Puzzle Together: Age and Performance Level Modulate the Neural Response to Increasing Task Load within Left Rostral Prefrontal Cortex

Bauer

Sammer

Toepper

2015

BioMed Research International

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Age-related working memory decline is associated with functional cerebral changes within prefrontal cortex (PFC). Kind and meaning of these changes are heavily discussed since they depend on performance level and task load. Hence, we investigated the effects of age, performance level, and load on spatial working memory retrieval-related brain activation in different subregions of the PFC. 19 younger (Y) and 21 older (O) adults who were further subdivided into high performers (HP) and low performers (LP) performed a modified version of the Corsi Block-Tapping test during fMRI. Brain data was analyzed by a 4 (groups: YHP, OHP, YLP, and OLP) × 3 (load levels: loads 4, 5, and 6) ANOVA. Results revealed significant group × load interaction effects within rostral dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFC. YHP showed a flexible neural upregulation with increasing load, whereas YLP reached a resource ceiling at a moderate load level. OHP showed a similar (though less intense) pattern as YHP and may have compensated age-effects at high task load. OLP showed neural inefficiency at low and no upregulation at higher load. Our findings highlight the relevance of age and performance level for load-dependent activation within rostral PFC. Results are discussed in the context of the compensation-related utilization of neural circuits hypothesis (CRUNCH) and functional PFC organization.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trying to Put the Puzzle Together: Age and Performance Level Modulate the Neural Response to Increasing Task Load within Left Rostral Prefrontal Cortex

Bauer

Sammer

Toepper

2015

BioMed Research International

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Regarding inhibitory deficits, particularly the active or intentional inhibition of irrelevant information appears to be impaired in AD [164, 165]. Further progression of the disease then leads to impaired attention, albeit attentional processes as processing speed appear to be longer preserved from AD-related change than other cognitive domains [121, 166].…”

Section: Neurocognitive Changes Associated With Alzheimer’s Diseasementioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociating Normal Aging from Alzheimer’s Disease: A View from Cognitive Neuroscience

Toepper

2017

JAD

Self Cite

140

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Both normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are associated with changes in cognition, grey and white matter volume, white matter integrity, neural activation, functional connectivity, and neurotransmission. Obviously, all of these changes are more pronounced in AD and proceed faster providing the basis for an AD diagnosis. Since these differences are quantitative, however, it was hypothesized that AD might simply reflect an accelerated aging process. The present article highlights the different neurocognitive changes associated with normal aging and AD and shows that, next to quantitative differences, there are multiple qualitative differences as well. These differences comprise different neurocognitive dissociations as different cognitive deficit profiles, different weights of grey and white matter atrophy, and different gradients of structural decline. These qualitative differences clearly indicate that AD cannot be simply described as accelerated aging process but on the contrary represents a solid entity.

show abstract

“…Toepper and co-workers [147] compared 13 AD patients with elderly controls on several tests (Block Suppression, clock drawing, digit-word transformation, verbal memory span). Interestingly, the Corsi test was used in forward and backward orders.…”

Section: Visuospatial Memory Deficits In Ad and MCImentioning

confidence: 99%

Visuospatial Memory in Healthy Elderly, AD and MCI: A Review

Iachini¹,

Iavarone²,

Senese³

et al. 2009

CAS

198

135

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the literature it is commonly reported that several spatial abilities decline with normal aging, even though such a decline is not uniform. So far, it is not yet clear which spatial components present a normal age-related decline, which ones are preserved and at what point the deficit is so severe to represent an index of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or a symptom of potential degenerative progression as in the early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). In particular, AD (from early onset) is characterised by impairments in constructive abilities, visuospatial intelligence, spatial short-term memory deficits, and disorders of spatial orientation (topographical disorientation). MCI indicates a condition, generally affecting older individuals, characterized by cognitive deficits including memory and/or non memory impairments and at high risk of progression to dementia. Three MCI subgroups have been distinguished and a very high risk of developing AD is associated to the amnestic MCI subtypes. Further, recent studies have suggested that the allocentric component of spatial memory might be taken as predictor of AD from MCI. Given the frequency of visuospatial deficits in early-stage AD, evaluation of visuospatial processes is a promising approach to find predictive markers of AD. Here we report a review of the literature exploring specific visuospatial components in normal aging, MCI, and AD. In this way we could shed some light on the role of these components in the progression from MCI to AD and pave the way for future studies.

show abstract

Early detection of Alzheimer's disease: a new working memory paradigm

Cited by 22 publications

References 30 publications

Trying to Put the Puzzle Together: Age and Performance Level Modulate the Neural Response to Increasing Task Load within Left Rostral Prefrontal Cortex

Trying to Put the Puzzle Together: Age and Performance Level Modulate the Neural Response to Increasing Task Load within Left Rostral Prefrontal Cortex

Dissociating Normal Aging from Alzheimer’s Disease: A View from Cognitive Neuroscience

Visuospatial Memory in Healthy Elderly, AD and MCI: A Review

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About