title: Promising developments in neuropsychological approaches for the detection of preclinical Alzheimer's disease: a selective review.
abstract: Recently published guidelines suggest that the most opportune time to treat individuals with Alzheimer's disease is during the preclinical phase of the disease. This is a phase when individuals are defined as clinically normal but exhibit evidence of amyloidosis, neurodegeneration and subtle cognitive/behavioral decline. While our standard cognitive tests are useful for detecting cognitive decline at the stage of mild cognitive impairment, they were not designed for detecting the subtle cognitive variations associated with this biomarker stage of preclinical Alzheimer's disease. However, neuropsychologists are attempting to meet this challenge by designing newer cognitive measures and questionnaires derived from translational efforts in neuroimaging, cognitive neuroscience and clinical/experimental neuropsychology. This review is a selective summary of several novel, potentially promising, approaches that are being explored for detecting early cognitive evidence of preclinical Alzheimer's disease in presymptomatic individuals.
authors.affiliation: Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Departments of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Dorene M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rentz
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology, Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre and Scottish Dementia Clinical Research Network, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK.
authors.forename: Mario A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Parra Rodriguez
authors.affiliation: Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Departments of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amariglio
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Division, Department of Neurology, Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 630 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Yaakov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.affiliation: Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Departments of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 221 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Reisa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sperling
authors.affiliation: Alzheimer's Disease Center, Comprehensive Center for Brain Aging, Department of Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical Center, 145 East 32nd Street, New York, NY 10016, USA.
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferris