COGNITIVE HEALTH
Informative and Scholarly articles collected from around the Web
Cognitive Health is most often described as “staying sharp” or being “right in the mind” and define it as living to an advanced age, having good physical health, having a positive mental outlook, being alert, having a good memory, and being socially involved.
The eight-core cognitive skills are Sustained Attention, Response Inhibition, Speed of Information Processing, Cognitive Flexibility and Control, Multiple Simultaneous Attention, Working Memory, Category Formation and Pattern Recognition.
Articles List
Background: Epidemiological studies indicate a statistical linkage between atherosclerotic vascular disease (ATH) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Autopsy studies of cardiac disease in AD have been few and inconclusive. In this report, clinical and gross anatomic measures of cardiac disease were compared in deceased human subjects with and without AD.
Abstract: Heart failure has served as a clinically useful model for understanding how cardiac dysfunction is associated with neuroanatomic and neuropsychological changes in aging adults, theoretically because systemic hypoperfusion disrupts cerebral perfusion, contributing to clinical brain injury. This review summarizes more recent data suggesting that subtle cardiac dysfunction or low normal levels of cardiac function, as quantified by cardiac output, are related to cognitive and neuroimaging markers of abnormal brain aging in the absence of heart failure or severe cardiomyopathy. Additional work is required, but such associations suggest that reduced cardiac output may be a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and abnormal brain aging through the propagation or exacerbation of neurovascular processes, microembolism due to thrombosis, and AD neuropathological processes. Such mechanistic pathways are discussed in the context of a theoretical model that posits a direct pathway of injury between cardiac output and abnormal brain aging (i.e., reduced systemic blood flow disrupts cerebral blood flow homeostasis), contributing to clinical brain injury, independent of shared risk factors for both cardiac dysfunction and abnormal brain aging.
Background and Purpose—Carotid atherosclerosis has been associated with increased risk of stroke, and poorer cognitive performance in older adults. The relation of carotid atherosclerosis to cognitive impairment and MRI indices of ischemia and aging in midlife is less clear.
Background—Cardiac dysfunction is associated with neuroanatomic and neuropsychological changes in aging adults with prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD), theoretically because systemic hypoperfusion disrupts cerebral perfusion, contributing to subclinical brain injury. We hypothesized that cardiac function, as measured by the cardiac index, would be associated with pre-clinical brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological markers of ischemia and Alzheimer’s disease in the community.
Abstract: Heart failure is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease. In the absence of heart failure, we hypothesized that left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), an indicator of cardiac dysfunction, would be associated with pre-clinical brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological markers of ischemia and AD in the community. Brain MRI, cardiac MRI, neuropsychological, and laboratory data were collected on 1114 Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort participants free from clinical stroke or dementia (40–89 years, 67±9; 54% women). Neuropsychological and neuroimaging markers of brain aging were related to cardiac MRI-assessed LVEF. In multivariable-adjusted linear regressions, LVEF was not associated with any brain aging variable (p-values>0.15). However, LVEF quintile analyses yielded several U-shape associations. Compared to the referent (Q2–Q4), the lowest quintile (Q1) LVEF was associated with a lower mean cognitive performance, including Visual Reproduction Delayed Recall (β= −0.27, p<0.001) and Hooper Visual Organization Test (β= −0.27, p<0.001). Compared to the referent, the highest quintile (Q5) LVEF values also were associated with lower mean cognitive performances, including Logical Memory Delayed Recall (β= −0.18, p=0.03), Visual Reproduction Delayed Recall (β= −0.17, p=0.03), Trail Making Test Part B-Part A (β= −0.22, p=0.02) and Hooper Visual Organization Test (Q5 β= −0.20, p=0.02). Findings were
Objective: To demonstrate the feasibility of a cognitive composite outcome for clinically normal elderly participants with evidence of AD pathology using the ADCS Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite (ADCS-PACC). The ADCS-PACC combines tests that assess episodic memory, timed executive function, and global cognition. The ADCS-PACC is the primary outcome measure for the first clinical trial in preclinical AD (ie, the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s study).
Abstract: Epidemiological projections of the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias, the rapidly expanding population over the age of 65, and the enormous societal consequence on health, economics, and community foretell of a looming global public health crisis. Currently available treatments for AD are symptomatic, with modest effect sizes and limited impact on longer-term disease outcomes. There have been no newly approved pharmaceutical treatments in the last decade, despite enormous efforts to develop disease-modifying treatments directed at Alzheimer’s-associated pathology. An unprecedented collaborative effort of government, regulators, industry, academia, and the community-at-large is needed to address this crisis and to develop an actionable plan for rapid progress toward successfully developing effective treatments. Here, we map out a course of action in four key priority areas, including (1) addressing the fundamental mechanisms of disease, with the goal of developing a core set of research tools, a framework for data sharing, and creation of accessible validated and replicated disease models; (2) developing translational research that emphasizes rapid progress in disease model development and better translation from preclinical to clinical stages, deploying leading technologies to more accurately develop predictive models; (3) preventing AD through the development of robust methods and resources to advance trials and creating fundamental resources such as continuous adaptive trials, registries, data repositories, and instrument development; and (4) innovating public/private partnerships and global collaborations, with mechanisms to incentivize collaborations and investments, develop larger precompetitive spaces, and more rapid data sharing.
Abstract: A new secondary prevention trial in older people with amyloid accumulation at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease dementia should provide insights into whether anti-amyloid therapy can delay cognitive decline.
Abstract: The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association charged a workgroup with the task of developing criteria for the symptomatic predementia phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), referred to in this article as mild cognitive impairment due to AD. The workgroup developed the following two sets of criteria: (1) core clinical criteria that could be used by healthcare providers without access to advanced imaging techniques or cerebrospinal fluid analysis, and (2) research criteria that could be used in clinical research settings, including clinical trials. The second set of criteria incorporate the use of biomarkers based on imaging and cerebrospinal fluid measures. The final set of criteria for mild cognitive impairment due to AD has four levels of certainty, depending on the presence and nature of the biomarker findings. Considerable work is needed to validate the criteria that use biomarkers and to standardize biomarker analysis for use in community settings.
Abstract:
Scientific evidence continues to demonstrate the linkage of vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease. In December 2013, the Alzheimer’s Association, with scientific input from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute from the National Institutes of Health, convened scientific experts to discuss the research gaps in our understanding of how vascular factors contribute to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia. This manuscript summarizes the meeting and the resultant discussion, including an outline of the next steps needed to move this area of research forward.
A growing body of research suggests that the most common cause of dementia in older people is a mix of vascular and Alzheimer’s-related brain abnormalities and that approximately half of the people who die with Alzheimer’s also have evidence of strokes in their brains. Furthermore, when strokes and hallmark Alzheimer’s plaques and tangles are combined, it increases a person’s likelihood of experiencing dementia. Stroke, or as it is known more generally as cerebrovascular disease, occurs with aging and is made worse by conditions like smoking, hypertension or diabetes.
Objective To measure changes in cognitive function among survivors of incident stroke, controlling for their pre-stroke cognitive trajectories.
Abstract
Studies have shown differences in specific cognitive ability domains and risk of Alzheimer’s disease between men and women at a later age. However it is important to know that sex differences in cognitive function during adulthood may have their basis in both organizational effects, i.e., occurring as early as during the neuronal development period, as well as in activational effects, where the influence of the sex steroids influence brain function in adulthood. Further, the rate of cognitive decline with aging is also different between the sexes. Understanding the biology of sex differences in cognitive function will not only provide insight into Alzheimer’s disease prevention but also is integral to the development of personalized, gender-specific medicine. This review draws on epidemiological, translational, clinical, and basic science studies to assess the impact of sex differences in cognitive function from young to old, and examines the effects of sex hormone treatments on Alzheimer’s disease in men and women.
Purpose—The aim of this statement is to summarize data on stroke risk factors that are unique to and more common in women than men and to expand on the data provided in prior stroke guidelines and cardiovascular prevention guidelines for women. This guideline focuses on the risk factors unique to women, such as reproductive factors, and those that are more common in women, including migraine with aura, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and atrial fibrillation.