Neuroscience
The following study (see press release below and obtain the free full-text content of the research paper at full text) has received a good deal of media attention over the past couple of days.
Date: January 23, 2005
Contact: Public Affairs Office
American Psychological Association
(202) 336-5700
OLDER PEOPLE WITH THE “ALZHEIMER’S GENE” FIND IT HARDER TO “REMEMBER TO REMEMBER” EVEN IF THEY’RE HEALTHY
New Mexico study finds surprisingly strong impact of genetic variation
Washington — Carrying the higher-risk genotype for Alzheimer’s disease appears to render even healthy older people subject to major problems with prospective memory, the ability to remember what to do in the future. For the group studied, this could affect important behaviors such as remembering to take medicine at a certain time or getting to a doctor’s appointment. The research appears in the January issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
People with this genotype have a certain variety, or allele, of a gene called ApoE (for Apolipoprotein E), which switches on production of a protein that helps carry cholesterol in the blood. ApoE has three alleles and about one out of five people carry the e-4 allele. It makes homozygous carriers, who carry this variation on both of their ApoE genes, eight times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as non-carriers. Heterozygous carriers, who carry the high-risk variation only on half the pair, have a three-fold higher risk. Neuro- psychologists have looked at the episodic, or retrospective, memory, of e-4 carriers, especially for recent events. This study was the first to look at their prospective memory.
At the University of New Mexico, a group of 32 healthy, dementia-free adults between ages of 60 and 87 were drawn from a larger study of aging and divided evenly between people with and people without the e-4 allele.
On a task in which participants were asked to remember to write a certain word when they saw a target word, the carriers showed significantly worse prospective memories. Far more often than non-carriers, they failed to remember to write down the desired word when they were supposed to – in other words, they forgot to do what they meant to do, when they meant to do it.
[ ... Read the full release ... ]
- Links For World Alzheimer's Day
Today, September 21, is World Alzheimer's Day and to mark the date Alzheimer's Disease International has published a new report on combating the stigma of Alzheimer's Disease. And to join in the day's events I've collected together...
- A Single Gene Controls Emotional Recall!
And the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE), which has been in the news lately, plays a key role in the overstated headline of the day: Emotional recall is in your genes 18:00 29 July 2007 Paul Marks Image from Fig. 1A of Depue et al. (2007) Your ability...
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- Neuropsychology Assessment Of Dementia: Early Detection
From an American Psychological Association (APA) press release on 25 September 2005:PSYCHOLOGISTS FIND MORE SENSITIVE TESTS FOR PREDICTING ALZHEIMER'S AS WELL AS SUBTLE CHANGES IN COGNITION Implicit-memory tests are stronger predictors than the common...
- Donepezil, Vitamin E, And Mild Cognitive Impairment In Aging
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Neuroscience
ApoE (Apolipoprotein E) Impact on Memory in Healthy Older Adults
The following study (see press release below and obtain the free full-text content of the research paper at full text) has received a good deal of media attention over the past couple of days.
Date: January 23, 2005
Contact: Public Affairs Office
American Psychological Association
(202) 336-5700
OLDER PEOPLE WITH THE “ALZHEIMER’S GENE” FIND IT HARDER TO “REMEMBER TO REMEMBER” EVEN IF THEY’RE HEALTHY
New Mexico study finds surprisingly strong impact of genetic variation
Washington — Carrying the higher-risk genotype for Alzheimer’s disease appears to render even healthy older people subject to major problems with prospective memory, the ability to remember what to do in the future. For the group studied, this could affect important behaviors such as remembering to take medicine at a certain time or getting to a doctor’s appointment. The research appears in the January issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.
People with this genotype have a certain variety, or allele, of a gene called ApoE (for Apolipoprotein E), which switches on production of a protein that helps carry cholesterol in the blood. ApoE has three alleles and about one out of five people carry the e-4 allele. It makes homozygous carriers, who carry this variation on both of their ApoE genes, eight times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as non-carriers. Heterozygous carriers, who carry the high-risk variation only on half the pair, have a three-fold higher risk. Neuro- psychologists have looked at the episodic, or retrospective, memory, of e-4 carriers, especially for recent events. This study was the first to look at their prospective memory.
At the University of New Mexico, a group of 32 healthy, dementia-free adults between ages of 60 and 87 were drawn from a larger study of aging and divided evenly between people with and people without the e-4 allele.
On a task in which participants were asked to remember to write a certain word when they saw a target word, the carriers showed significantly worse prospective memories. Far more often than non-carriers, they failed to remember to write down the desired word when they were supposed to – in other words, they forgot to do what they meant to do, when they meant to do it.
[ ... Read the full release ... ]
- Links For World Alzheimer's Day
Today, September 21, is World Alzheimer's Day and to mark the date Alzheimer's Disease International has published a new report on combating the stigma of Alzheimer's Disease. And to join in the day's events I've collected together...
- A Single Gene Controls Emotional Recall!
And the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE), which has been in the news lately, plays a key role in the overstated headline of the day: Emotional recall is in your genes 18:00 29 July 2007 Paul Marks Image from Fig. 1A of Depue et al. (2007) Your ability...
- Variant Creutzfeldt-jakob Disease (vcjd)
From The BBC: Blood test for vCJD 'could identify carriers' By Sonya McGilchrist BBC News 2 February 2011 Last updated at 20:22 ET [snip]A blood test for variant CJD has been developed by British scientists. Currently patients suspected of having...
- Neuropsychology Assessment Of Dementia: Early Detection
From an American Psychological Association (APA) press release on 25 September 2005:PSYCHOLOGISTS FIND MORE SENSITIVE TESTS FOR PREDICTING ALZHEIMER'S AS WELL AS SUBTLE CHANGES IN COGNITION Implicit-memory tests are stronger predictors than the common...
- Donepezil, Vitamin E, And Mild Cognitive Impairment In Aging
The New England Journal of Medicine has made available on its website prepublication versions of the results of a large study relevant to aging, neuropsychological changes in aging, and the onset of dementia. It has also made available in the same format...