Correlation of neuropsychological tests with measures of atrophy in the hippocampal area

Abstract

Decline in cognitive abilities which are not linked to normal ageing, like mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD) are important to understand and diagnose. A variety of sources, for example neuropsychological testing and MTA biomarker are used to diagnose AD and MCI. However, limited research has been done on the MTA as a biomarker for diagnosing MCI and AD. The purpose of this study was to explore a correlation of neuropsychological tests with measures of atrophy in the hippocampal area. The database is from the longitudinal study The nature and progression of mild cognitive impairment study (MCI study), that began in 2014 and it still ongoing. The participants in this study were 145 individuals, aged 46 to 95. Results show that MTA scores have significant correlations with neuropsychological tests that measure the cognitive domains that first decline in AD (memory and executive functions), but not with cognitive domains that are preserved in the early stages of AD (visuospatial functions). The correlation is higher in the younger age group then in the older age group. This suggests that MTA could be a valid biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease for people under the age of 75 in Icelandic population. Keywords: MTA, neuropsychological tests, cognitive impairment