Associations between reaction time measures and white matter hyperintensities in very old age

Becky I Haynes; David Bunce; Nicole A Kochan; Wei Wen; Henry Brodaty; Perminder S Sachdev

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.021

Associations between reaction time measures and white matter hyperintensities in very old age

Neuropsychologia. 2017 Feb:96:249-255. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.021. Epub 2017 Jan 21.

Authors

Becky I Haynes¹, David Bunce², Nicole A Kochan³, Wei Wen³, Henry Brodaty⁴, Perminder S Sachdev³

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
² School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; Centre for Health Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: d.bunce@leeds.ac.uk.
³ Centre for Health Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Neuropsychiatric Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Barker Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.
⁴ Centre for Health Brain Ageing (CHeBA), School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Dementia Collaborative Research Centre, School of Psychiatry, UNSW Medicine, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry, Prince of Wales Hospital, Avoca Street, Randwick, NSW 2031, Australia.

PMID: 28115193
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.01.021

Abstract

In old age, a relationship has been reported between intraindividual variability (IIV) in reaction time and white matter integrity as evidenced by white matter hyperintensities (WMH). However, it is unclear how far such associations are due to incipient neurodegenerative pathology in the samples investigated. The present study examined the relationship between IIV and WMH in older individuals (N=526) drawn from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. Using a complex reaction time (RT) task, greater IIV and mean-RT were related to a higher WMH burden in the frontal lobe. Critically, significant associations remained having taken future dementia into account suggesting that they were not explained by incipient dementia. Additionally, independent measures of executive function accounted for the association between RT metrics and WHM. The results are consistent with the view that frontally-supported cognitive processes are involved in IIV-WMH relations, and that RT measures are sensitive to compromise in white matter structures in non-demented older individuals.

Keywords: Cognition; Executive function; Intraindividual variability; Reaction time; White matter hyperintensities.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging / pathology*
Association*
Dementia / diagnostic imaging
Dementia / physiopathology
Executive Function
Female
Frontal Lobe / diagnostic imaging
Frontal Lobe / pathology*
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Individuality*
Leukoencephalopathies / complications*
Leukoencephalopathies / diagnostic imaging
Longitudinal Studies
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neuropsychological Tests
Psychomotor Performance / physiology
Reaction Time / physiology*