title: Is the Alzheimer's disease cortical thickness signature a biological marker for memory?
abstract: Recent work suggests that analysis of the cortical thickness in key brain regions can be used to identify individuals at greatest risk for development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). It is unclear to what extent this "signature" is a biological marker of normal memory function - the primary cognitive domain affected by AD. We examined the relationship between the AD signature biomarker and memory functioning in a group of neurologically healthy young and older adults. Cortical thickness measurements and neuropsychological evaluations were obtained in 110 adults (age range 21-78, mean = 46) drawn from the Brain Resource International Database. The cohort was divided into young adult (n = 64, age 21-50) and older adult (n = 46, age 51-78) groups. Cortical thickness analysis was performed with FreeSurfer, and the average cortical thickness extracted from the eight regions that comprise the AD signature. Mean AD-signature cortical thickness was positively associated with performance on the delayed free recall trial of a list learning task and this relationship did not differ between younger and older adults. Mean AD-signature cortical thickness was not associated with performance on a test of psychomotor speed, as a control task, in either group. The results suggest that the AD signature cortical thickness is a marker for memory functioning across the adult lifespan.
authors.affiliation: Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Edgar
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Busovaca
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA.|Department of Neurology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Molly E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.affiliation: Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Irene B
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.affiliation: Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16, New York, NY, 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Erica Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Griffith
authors.affiliation: Sydney Translational Imaging Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.|Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead, Australia.|Sydney Medical School, Westmead, Australia.
authors.forename: Stuart M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Grieve
authors.affiliation: Sydney Translational Imaging Laboratory, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.|Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millennium Institute, Westmead, Australia.|Sydney Medical School, Westmead, Australia.
authors.forename: Mayuresh S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Korgaonkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.|Sierra-Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, Clinical Center (MIRECC) Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Leanne M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16, New York, NY, 10032, USA. amb2139@columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Adam M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Brickman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications; D015415:Biomarkers; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Alzheimer’s Disease; Cortical thickness; Memory; Neuropsychology; Structural MRI