Relationship between brain AD biomarkers and episodic memory performance in healthy aging

Lou Rizzolo; Justinas Narbutas; Maxime Van Egroo; Daphne Chylinski; Gabriel Besson; Marion Baillet; Mohamed Ali Bahri; Eric Salmon; Pierre Maquet; Gilles Vandewalle; Christine Bastin; Fabienne Collette

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105680

Relationship between brain AD biomarkers and episodic memory performance in healthy aging

Brain Cogn. 2021 Mar:148:105680. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105680. Epub 2021 Jan 6.

Affiliations

¹ GIGA-Institute, Cyclotron Research Centre/In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
² GIGA-Institute, Cyclotron Research Centre/In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
³ GIGA-Institute, Cyclotron Research Centre/In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium; Department of Neurology, CHU Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
⁴ GIGA-Institute, Cyclotron Research Centre/In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium; Department of Neurology, CHU Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium.
⁵ GIGA-Institute, Cyclotron Research Centre/In Vivo Imaging, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium; Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: f.collette@uliege.be.

PMID: 33418512
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105680

Abstract

The presence of brain biomarkers can be observed decades before the first clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We aimed to determine whether associations between biomarkers and episodic memory performance already exist in a healthy late middle-aged population or only in participants over 60 years old. Performance at the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test [FCSRT], the Logical Memory test and the Mnemonic Similarity Task [MST] was determined in sixty healthy participants (50-70 y.) with a negative status for amyloid-beta (Aβ) biomarker. We assessed Aβ cortical level and tau/neuroinflammation burden using PET scanner, and hippocampal atrophy with MRI scanner. Generalized linear mixed models showed that MST scores (recognition and pattern separation) were positively associated with hippocampal volume in participants over 60 years. No association between memory performance and Aβ and tau/neuroinflammation burden was found in the older or in the younger age group. This suggests that visual recognition memory and discrimination of lures may constitute early cognitive markers of memory decline in an older population.

Keywords: Aging; Alzheimer’s disease; Biomarkers; Episodic memory; Hippocampus.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / diagnostic imaging
Biomarkers
Brain / diagnostic imaging
Cognition
Cognitive Dysfunction*
Healthy Aging*
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Memory, Episodic*
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests
Positron-Emission Tomography

Substances

Biomarkers