Publications by authors named "Aimee James Karstens"

Identified in 1993, APOE4 is the greatest genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD), increasing risk up to 15-fold compared to the common variant APOE3. Since the mid 1990's, transgenic (Tg) mice have been developed to model AD pathology and progression, primarily via expression of the familial AD (FAD) mutations in the presence of mouse-APOE (m-APOE). APOE4, associated with enhanced amyloid-β (Aβ) accumulation, has rarely been the focus in designing FAD-Tg mouse models.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Neuropsychological tests are designed to assay brain function via performance measurements. Many tests corresponding to visual and motor cortex function have been validated. Tests probing reward circuitry, including the ventral striatum (VS), could benefit assessment of numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders in which reward or VS function is disturbed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Altered HPA-axis functioning is a hypothesized mechanism for worsened cognition in depression. The current study examines the indirect effects of depression on processing speed, executive functioning, and memory as a function of the HPA-axis. 38 individuals with a depression diagnosis and 50 healthy controls (HCs) aged 18-86 underwent neuropsychological testing and at-home diurnal salivary cortisol collection.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Trauma and depression have each been associated with neurocognitive alterations, but their combined effect on neurocognition is unclear. We investigated the separate and interactive associations of trauma and depression on neurocognition in a sample of ethnically diverse urban dwellers, and explored the impact of age on these effects.

Methods: 284 adults aged 30-89 were divided into groups based on their current depression and trauma history.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF