Learning slopes in early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Investigation of learning slopes in early-onset dementias has been limited. The current study aimed to highlight the sensitivity of learning slopes to discriminate disease severity in cognitively normal participants and those diagnosed with early-onset dementia with and without β-amyloid positivity METHOD: Data from 310 participants in the Longitudinal Early-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Study (aged 41 to 65) were used to calculate learning slope metrics. Learning slopes among diagnostic groups were compared, and the relationships of slopes with standard memory measures were determined RESULTS: Worse learning slopes were associated with more severe disease states, even after controlling for demographics, total learning, and cognitive severity. A particular metric-the learning ratio (LR)-outperformed other learning slope calculations across analyses CONCLUSIONS: Learning slopes appear to be sensitive to early-onset dementias, even when controlling for the effect of total learning and cognitive severity. The LR may be the learning measure of choice for such analyses.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Learning is impaired in amyloid-positive EOAD, beyond cognitive severity scores alone. Amyloid-positive EOAD participants perform worse on learning slopes than amyloid-negative participants. Learning ratio appears to be the learning metric of choice for EOAD participants.

• Authors: Dustin B Hammers, Sára Nemes, Taylor Diedrich, Ani Eloyan, Kala Kirby, Paul Aisen, Joel Kramer, Kelly Nudelman, Tatiana Foroud, Malia Rumbaugh, Alireza Atri, Gregory S Day, Ranjan Duara, Neill R Graff-Radford, Lawrence S Honig, David T Jones, Joseph C Masdeu, Mario F Mendez, Erik Musiek, Chiadi U Onyike, Meghan Riddle, Emily Rogalski, Steve Salloway, Sharon J Sha, Raymond Scott Turner, Sandra Weintraub, Thomas S Wingo, David A Wolk, Bonnie Wong, Maria C Carrillo, Bradford C Dickerson, Gil D Rabinovici, Liana G Apostolova, LEADS Consortium
• Journal: Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association (Alzheimers Dement) Vol. 19 Suppl 9 Pg. S19-S28 (11 2023) ISSN: 1552-5279 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 37243937 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural)
• Copyright: © 2023 the Alzheimer's Association.

Chemical References

• Amyloid beta-Peptides
• Amyloid
• Amyloidogenic Proteins

Topics

• Humans
• Alzheimer Disease (diagnosis, psychology)
• Amyloid beta-Peptides
• Amyloid
• Learning
• Amyloidogenic Proteins