Linking self-perceived cognitive functioning questionnaires using item response theory: The subjective cognitive decline initiative.

Objective: Self-perceived cognitive functioning, considered highly relevant in the context of aging and dementia, is assessed in numerous ways-hindering the comparison of findings across studies and settings. Therefore, the present study aimed to link item-level self-report questionnaire data from international aging studies.

Method: We harmonized secondary data from 24 studies and 40 different questionnaires with item response theory (IRT) techniques using a graded response model with a Bayesian estimator.

Association of the Informant-Reported Memory Decline With Cognitive and Brain Deterioration Through the Alzheimer Clinical Continuum.

Background And Objectives: Studies are sparse regarding the association between the informant-reported subjective memory decline (informant report) and Alzheimer disease (AD) biomarkers. This study thus aimed at determining the clinical relevance of the informant report throughout the AD clinical continuum, by assessing its specific relationships with amyloid deposition, cognition, and neurodegeneration.

Methods: Participants from the Imagerie Multimodale de la maladie d'Alzheimer à un stade Précoce (IMAP+) primary cohort and the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) replication cohort were included; all underwent multimodal neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessments.

Evaluation of tau deposition using F-PI-2620 PET in MCI and early AD subjects-a MissionAD tau sub-study.

Background: The ability of F-PI-2620 PET to measure the spatial distribution of tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been demonstrated in previous studies. The objective of this work was to evaluate tau deposition using F-PI-2620 PET in beta-amyloid positive subjects with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or mild AD dementia and characterize it with respect to amyloid deposition, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assessment, hippocampal volume, and cognition.

Methods: Subjects with a diagnosis of MCI due to AD or mild AD dementia and a visually amyloid-positive F-florbetaben PET scan (n=74, 76 ± 7 years, 38 females) underwent a baseline F-PI-2620 PET, T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), CSF assessment (Aβ42/Aβ40 ratio, p-tau, t-tau) (n=22) and several cognitive tests.

Plasma Levels of Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator (tPA) in Normal Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: Links With Cognition, Brain Structure, Brain Function and Amyloid Burden.

Tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) is a protease known for its fibrinolytic action but is also involved in physiological and pathophysiological aging processes; including amyloid elimination and synaptic plasticity. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of tPA in cognitive and brain aging. Therefore, we assessed the links between tPA plasma concentration and cognition, structural MRI, FDG-PET and Flobetapir-PET neuroimaging in 155 cognitively unimpaired adults (CUA, aged 20-85 years old) and 32 patients with Alzheimer's disease (ALZ).

Subjective cognitive decline: opposite links to neurodegeneration across the Alzheimer's continuum.

Subjective memory decline is associated with neurodegeneration and increased risk of cognitive decline in participants with no or subjective cognitive impairment, while in patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's-type dementia, findings are inconsistent. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of subjective memory decline changes, relative to objective memory performances, and of their relationships with neurodegeneration, across the clinical continuum of Alzheimer's disease. Two hundred participants from the primary cohort and 731 participants from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) replication cohort were included.

Early detection of amyloid load using F-florbetaben PET.

Background: A low amount and extent of Aβ deposition at early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) may limit the use of previously developed pathology-proven composite SUVR cutoffs. This study aims to characterize the population with earliest abnormal Aβ accumulation using F-florbetaben PET. Quantitative thresholds for the early (SUVR) and established (SUVR) Aβ deposition were developed, and the topography of early Aβ deposition was assessed.

The role of metamemory on cognitive complaints in cancer patients.

Objective: Although cancer patients frequently report cognitive disturbances, it is commonly asserted a lack of association between cognitive complaints and neuropsychological test performances. Our goal was to better understand the relationships between subjective and objective cognitive scores through a metamemory monitoring assessment.

Methods: Sixty cancer patients currently treated by chemotherapy and/or targeted therapy, and 30 healthy controls (HC) were included.

Evaluation of Dosimetry, Quantitative Methods, and Test-Retest Variability of F-PI-2620 PET for the Assessment of Tau Deposits in the Human Brain.

F-PI-2620 is a next-generation tau PET tracer that has demonstrated ability to image the spatial distribution of suspected tau pathology. The objective of this study was to assess the tracer biodistribution, dosimetry, and quantitative methods of F-PI-2620 in the human brain. Full kinetic modeling to quantify tau load was investigated.

Tau PET imaging with F-PI-2620 in Patients with Alzheimer Disease and Healthy Controls: A First-in-Humans Study.

F-PI-2620 is a PET tracer with high binding affinity for aggregated tau, a key pathologic feature of Alzheimer disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Preclinically, F-PI-2620 binds to both 3-repeat and 4-repeat tau isoforms. The purpose of this first-in-humans study was to evaluate the ability of F-PI-2620 to detect tau pathology in AD patients using PET imaging, as well as to assess the safety and tolerability of this new tau PET tracer.

Cross-sectional and longitudinal characterization of SCD patients recruited from the community versus from a memory clinic: subjective cognitive decline, psychoaffective factors, cognitive performances, and atrophy progression over time.

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) defines a heterogeneous population, part of which having Alzheimer's disease (AD). We aimed at characterizing SCD populations according to whether or not they referred to a memory clinic, by assessing the factors associated with increased AD risk.

Methods: Seventy-eight cognitively unimpaired older adults from the IMAP+ study (Caen) were included, amongst which 28 healthy controls (HC) and 50 SCD recruited from the community (SCD-community; n = 23) or from a memory clinic (SCD-clinic; n = 27).

The elusive tau molecular structures: can we translate the recent breakthroughs into new targets for intervention?

Insights into tau molecular structures have advanced significantly in recent years. This field has been the subject of recent breakthroughs, including the first cryo-electron microscopy structures of tau filaments from Alzheimer's and Pick's disease inclusions, as well as the structure of the repeat regions of tau bound to microtubules. Tau structure covers various species as the tau protein itself takes many forms.

Is there a specific memory signature associated with Aβ-PET positivity in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment?

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is a clinical entity with various potential etiologies including but not limited to Alzheimer's disease. We examined whether a positive ([18F]Florbetapir) beta amyloid positron emission tomography scan, supporting underlying Alzheimer's disease pathophysiology, was associated with specific memory deficits in 48 patients with aMCI (33 beta amyloid positive, 15 beta amyloid negative). Memory was evaluated using an autobiographical fluency task and a word-list learning task with 2 different encoding types (shallow/incidental versus deep/intentional).

Regional patterns of gray matter volume, hypometabolism, and beta-amyloid in groups at risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of β-amyloid (Aβ) deposition and neurodegeneration. To seek for signs of such pathologies, we compared regional biomarker degrees and patterns of Aβ deposition, glucose hypometabolism, and gray matter volume (GMV) reduction in 3 groups at risk of AD. In elderly carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE4, n = 17), patients with subjective cognitive decline (n = 16), and patients with mild cognitive impairment (n = 30), head-to-head intermodality comparisons were performed on cross-sectional structural magnetic resonance images as well as 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose and 18F-florbetapir positron emission tomography scans.

Added value of F-florbetaben amyloid PET in the diagnostic workup of most complex patients with dementia in France: A naturalistic study.

Introduction: Although some studies have previously addressed the clinical impact of amyloid positron emission tomography (PET), none has specifically addressed its selective and hierarchical implementation in relation to cerebrospinal fluid analysis in a naturalistic setting.

Methods: This multicenter study was performed at French tertiary memory clinics in patients presenting with most complex clinical situations (i.e.

Qualitative and quantitative assessment of self-reported cognitive difficulties in nondemented elders: Association with medical help seeking, cognitive deficits, and β-amyloid imaging.

Introduction: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) could help identify early stages of Alzheimer's disease. However, SCD is multidetermined and protean, and the type of cognitive complaint associated with preclinical Alzheimer's disease needs refinement.

Methods: A total of 185 nondemented elders recruited from either the community or from a memory clinic filled a questionnaire.

Neural Correlates of Self-Reference Effect in Early Alzheimer's Disease.

Information that is processed with reference to the self (i.e., self-referential processing, SRP) is generally associated with better remembering than information processed in a semantic condition.

Distinct white matter injury associated with medial temporal lobe atrophy in Alzheimer's versus semantic dementia.

This study aims at further understanding the distinct vulnerability of brain networks in Alzheimer's disease (AD) versus semantic dementia (SD) investigating the white matter injury associated with medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy in both conditions. Twenty-six AD patients, twenty-one SD patients, and thirty-nine controls underwent a high-resolution T1-MRI scan allowing to obtain maps of grey matter volume and white matter density. A statistical conjunction approach was used to identify MTL regions showing grey matter atrophy in both patient groups.

Subjective cognitive decline in cognitively normal elders from the community or from a memory clinic: Differential affective and imaging correlates.

Introduction: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) could indicate preclinical Alzheimer's disease, but the existing literature is confounded by heterogeneous approaches to studying SCD. We assessed the differential cognitive, affective, and neuroimaging correlates of two aspects of SCD: reporting high cognitive difficulties on a self-rated questionnaire versus consulting at a memory clinic.

Methods: We compared 28 patients from a memory clinic with isolated SCD, 35 community-recruited elders with similarly high levels of self-reported cognitive difficulties, and 35 community-recruited controls with low self-reported cognitive difficulties.

Relative effect of APOE ε4 on neuroimaging biomarker changes across the lifespan.

Objective: To provide a comprehensive understanding of APOE ε4 effects across the lifespan on the 3 main neuroimaging biomarkers.

Methods: Two hundred seven community-dwelling, cognitively normal APOE ε4 carriers and noncarriers aged 20-87 years were involved in this study. They underwent structural MRI, fluorodeoxyglucose-PET, and florbetapir-PET scans.

Atrophy, hypometabolism and clinical trajectories in patients with amyloid-negative Alzheimer's disease.

See O'Sullivan and Vann (doi:10.1093/aww166) for a scientific commentary on this article.About 15% of patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease do not show high tracer retention on amyloid positon emission tomography imaging.

Episodic feeling-of-knowing relies on noncriterial recollection and familiarity: Evidence using an online remember-know procedure.

We examined the hypothesis that feeling-of-knowing judgments rely on recollection as well as on familiarity prompted by the cue presentation. A remember-know-no memory procedure was combined with the episodic FOK procedure employing a cue-target pair memory task. The magnitude of FOK judgments and FOK accuracy were examined as a function of recollection, familiarity, or the "no memory" option.

Interaction between years of education and APOE ε4 status on frontal and temporal metabolism.

Objective: To examine interactions between years of education and APOE ε4 status on gray matter volume and metabolism in cognitively healthy participants.

Methods: Seventy-two healthy participants (28 APOE ε4 carriers and 44 noncarriers; from 23 to 84 years of age) with FDG-PET and structural MRI were included. A subgroup also underwent florbetapir-PET.

Subjective Cognitive Decline in Older Adults: An Overview of Self-Report Measures Used Across 19 International Research Studies.

Research increasingly suggests that subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in older adults, in the absence of objective cognitive dysfunction or depression, may be a harbinger of non-normative cognitive decline and eventual progression to dementia. Little is known, however, about the key features of self-report measures currently used to assess SCD. The Subjective Cognitive Decline Initiative (SCD-I) Working Group is an international consortium established to develop a conceptual framework and research criteria for SCD (Jessen et al.

Hippocampal Subfield Volumetry and 3D Surface Mapping in Subjective Cognitive Decline.

Background: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) may be the first clinical sign of Alzheimer's disease (AD). SCD individuals with normal cognition may already have significant hippocampal atrophy, a well-known feature of AD.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that SCD, compared to healthy individuals without SCD, have a pattern of hippocampal subfield atrophy similar to that measured in the AD pathology.

Brain structural, functional, and cognitive correlates of recent versus remote autobiographical memories in amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Deficits in autobiographical memory appear earlier for recent than for remote life periods over the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present study aims to further our understanding of this graded effect by investigating the cognitive and neural substrates of recent versus remote autobiographical memories in patients with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) thanks to an autobiographical fluency task. 20 aMCI patients and 25 Healthy elderly Controls (HC) underwent neuropsychological tests assessing remote (20-to-30 years old) and recent (the ten last years) autobiographical memory as well as episodic and semantic memory, executive function and global cognition.