title: Apolipoprotein E ϵ4 is positively related to spatial performance but unrelated to hippocampal volume in healthy young adults.
abstract: The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ϵ4 allele is known to be a major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). It has been linked to especially episodic memory decline and hippocampal atrophy in both healthy and demented elderly populations. In young adults, ϵ4 carriers have shown better performance in episodic memory compared to non-carriers. Spatial memory, however, has not been thoroughly assessed in relation to APOE in spite of its dependence on the hippocampus. In this study, we assessed the effect of APOE genotype on a variety of spatial and episodic memory tasks as well as hippocampal volume assessed through manual tracing in a sample of young adults (N=123). We also assessed whether potential effects were modulated by sex. The presence of one or more ϵ4 alleles had positive effects on spatial function and memory and object location memory, but no effect on word recognition. Men were superior to women in spatial function and memory but there were no sex differences in the other tasks. In spite of APOE ϵ4 carriers having superior performance in several memory tasks, no difference was found as a function of APOE genotype in hippocampal volume. To our knowledge, this study is the first to show that APOE ϵ4 has a positive effect on spatial ability in young adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: eva.stening@psyk.uu.se.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stening
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Physiology and Neuroscience, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Elias
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Eriksson
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Lars-Olof
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Wahlund
authors.affiliation: Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Molecular Neuroscience, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zetterberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Hedvig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Söderlund
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4 / Q000235:genetics*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006579:Heterozygote; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009929:Organ Size; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D065852:Spatial Memory; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D053327:Apolipoprotein E4
keywords: APOE ϵ4; Episodic memory; Hippocampus; Manual tracing; Spatial memory; Young adults