ORCID Profile
0000-0002-9425-1059
Current Organisation
Brigham and Women's Hospital
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Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 06-11-2019
Abstract: Judgments of learning (JOL) pertain to introspective metamemory processes evaluating how well information is learned. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task, we investigated the neural substrates of JOL predictions in a group of 105 cognitively unimpaired older adults from the Harvard Aging Brain Study. Associations of JOL performance and its neural correlates with amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau pathology, two proteinopathies associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and aging, were also examined. We found that trials judged as learned well relative to trials judged as learned less well (high JOL & low JOL) engaged the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, among other midline regions, in addition to bilateral hippoc i. In this cohort of older adults, greater levels of entorhinal tau deposition were associated with overestimation of memory performance and with lower fMRI signal in midline regions during predicted memory success. No associations with Aβ were found. The findings suggest that tau pathology in unimpaired older adults may play a role in altered metamemory processes. We discuss our findings in light of the hypothesis that JOLs are partially dependent on a process involving attempts to retrieve a correct answer from memory, as well as implications for clinical research investigating unawareness of memory performance (i.e., anosognosia) in patients with AD dementia.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 11-10-2017
DOI: 10.1017/S1041610216001502
Abstract: Converging evidence suggests that subjective cognitive concerns (SCC) are associated with biomarker evidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) prior to objective clinical impairment. However, the sensitivity of SCC reports in early AD may be biased by demographic factors. Here, we sought to investigate whether age, education, and sex influence the relationship between SCC and amyloid (Aβ) burden. In this cross-sectional study, we examined 252 clinically normal (CN) in iduals (57.7% females) enrolled in the Harvard Aging Brain Study, ages 63–90 years (mean 73.7±6) with 6–20 years of education (mean 15.8±3). SCC was assessed as a composite score comprising three questionnaires. Cortical Aβ burden was assessed with Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography imaging. A series of linear regression models assessed the potential modifying role of demographic variables with respect to Aβ burden and SCC. A post-hoc mediation model was implemented to further understand the relationship between Aβ burden and SCC via their relationship with education. Age (β = −0.84, p = 0.36) and sex (β = −0.55, p = 0.22) did not modify the relationship between SCC and Aβ burden. Fewer years of education was correlated with greater SCC ( r = −0.12, p = 0.05), but the relationship between Aβ burden and SCC was stronger in those with more education (β = 1.16, p 0.05). A partial mediation effect was found of Aβ burden on SCC via education ( b = −0.12, 95% CI [−0.31, −0.02]). These findings suggest that the association between SCC and Aβ burden becomes stronger with greater educational attainment. Thus, SCC may be of particular importance in highly educated CN in iduals harboring amyloid pathology.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 31-01-2022
DOI: 10.3389/FNAGI.2021.806432
Abstract: Whereas discrepancies between participant- and study partner-reported cognitive concerns on the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continuum have been observed, more needs to be known regarding the longitudinal trajectories of participant- vs. study partner-reported concerns, particularly their relationship to AD biomarkers and mood symptomology. Additionally, it is unclear whether years of in-clinic data collection are needed to observe relationships with AD biomarkers, or whether more frequent, remote assessments over shorter periods of time would suffice. This study primarily sought to examine the relationships between longitudinal trajectories of participant- and study partner-rated cognitive decline and baseline biomarker levels [i.e., amyloid and tau positron emission tomography (PET)], in addition to how mood symptomatology may alter these trajectories of concerns over a 2-year period. Baseline mood was associated with longitudinal participant-rated concerns, such that participants with elevated depression and anxiety scores at baseline had decreasing concerns about cognitive decline over time (fixed estimate = −0.17, 95% CI [−0.29 to −0.05], t = −2.75, df = 457, adj. p = 0.012). A significant interaction between baseline amyloid (fixed estimate = 4.07, 95% CI [1.13–7.01], t = 2.72, df = 353, adj. p = 0.026) and tau (fixed estimate = 3.50, 95% CI [0.95–6.06], t = 2.70, df = 331, adj. p = 0.030) levels was associated with increasing study partner concerns, but not participant concerns, over time. The interaction between amyloid and study partner concerns remained significant when utilizing only the first year of concern-related data collection. Overall, these results suggest that frequent, remote assessment of study partner-reported concerns may offer additional insight into the AD clinical spectrum, as study partners appear to more accurately update their concerns over time with regard to pathology, with these concerns less influenced by participants’ mood symptomatology.
Publisher: American Medical Association (AMA)
Date: 12-2017
No related grants have been discovered for PATRIZIA VANNINI.