In vivo hyperphosphorylation of tau is associated with synaptic loss and behavioral abnormalities in the absence of tau seeds.

Tau pathology is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. However, the sequence of events and the form of tau that confers toxicity are still unclear, due in large part to the lack of physiological models of tauopathy initiation and progression in which to test hypotheses. We have developed a series of targeted mice expressing frontotemporal-dementia-causing mutations in the humanized MAPT gene to investigate the earliest stages of tauopathy.

Short-term cognitive practice effects in Parkinson's disease: More than meets the eye.

Introduction: Although practice effects (PE) on repeated cognitive testing have received growing interest in Alzheimer's disease, they have been understudied in Parkinson's disease (PD). The current paper examined PE across one week in a sample of patients with PD via traditional methods and regression-based change scores, as well as if these change scores relate to clinical variables in PD.

Methods: Thirty-five patients with PD were administered a brief cognitive battery twice across approximately one week.

Reactions of clinical neuropsychologists to the Alzheimer's Association workgroup's draft diagnostic and staging criteria for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: An Alzheimer's Association (AA) workgroup published criteria for the diagnosis and staging of Alzheimer's disease (AD). To date, there have not been empirical investigations of professionals' opinions regarding the AA criteria for AD.

Objective: Our goal was to survey clinical neuropsychologists with expertise in dementia about these criteria.

The African American Dementia and Aging Project: an Oregon-based longitudinal study.

Introduction: The vast majority of studies on aging, cognition, and dementia focus on non-Hispanic white subjects. This paper adds to the extant literature by providing insight into the African American aging experience. Here we describe the study design and baseline characteristics of the African American Dementia and Aging Project (AADAPt) study, which is exploring aging and cognition in African American older adults in Oregon.

Tau filaments are tethered within brain extracellular vesicles in Alzheimer's disease.

The abnormal assembly of tau protein in neurons is a pathological hallmark of multiple neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Assembled tau associates with extracellular vesicles (EVs) in the central nervous system of individuals with AD, which is linked to its clearance and prion-like propagation. However, the identities of the assembled tau species and EVs, as well as how they associate, are not known.