In:
Alzheimer's & Dementia, Wiley, Vol. 16, No. S6 ( 2020-12)
Kurzfassung:
Using a digital pen to record performance on neuropsychological tasks allows for the capture of much more subtle and nuanced aspects of cognitive performance. Previous research showed that lower DCTClock summary score was associated with greater entorhinal tau in clinically‐normal older adults (CN) (Rentz, AAIC 2019). Additionally, spatial reasoning was related to elevated entorhinal tau, inferior temporal tau, and neocortical amyloid. Given the observed cognitive heterogeneity in early stages of AD, we explored the relationship between different aspects of digital clock performance and amyloid and tau pathology across the cortical surface. Method CN from the Harvard Aging Brain Study completed both a spontaneous (COM) and copy (COP) clock drawing test using a digital pen. We used a summary score (DCTScore) and four main composite scores (drawing efficiency, simple motor, information processing and spatial reasoning) calculated by Digital Cognition Technologies. Participants also underwent [ 11 C]PiB‐PET (n = 112) and [ 18 F]T807‐PET (n = 116) acquisition within one year of cognitive testing. We utilized a vertex‐wise analysis with a cluster‐wise multiple comparison correction (minimum cluster extent=100mm 2 ) and a threshold of ‐log(p) 〉 2 to analyze relationships with clock scores across the vertices, adjusting for age, sex, and education. Result Lower DCTScore strongly correlated with greater amyloid signal in the frontal lobe, with some significant clusters also observed within the lateral temporal and inferior parietal cortices (Figure 1). Lower DCTScore also related to elevated tau signal in the right lateral temporal and inferior parietal lobes. Tau was most strongly associated with COM spatial reasoning score in the right lateral temporal lobe (Figure 2), reflecting known functional associations with this region; this was not reflected with COP spatial reasoning scores. Conclusion In clinically‐normal older adults, lower scores on clock drawing were associated with greater cortical amyloid and tau. Lower spatial reasoning scores were related to tauopathy, but only in spontaneous clock drawing, supporting the notion that more complex cognitive tasks are compromised earlier in the clinical continuum. More fine‐grained measurements of cognition using digital tasks in relation to neuroimaging markers has the potential to improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of early AD.
Materialart:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
1552-5260
,
1552-5279
Sprache:
Englisch
Verlag:
Wiley
Publikationsdatum:
2020
ZDB Id:
2201940-6
