title: The importance of sustained attention in early Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: There is conflicting evidence regarding impairment of sustained attention in early Alzheimer's disease (AD). We examine whether sustained attention is impaired and predicts deficits in other cognitive domains in early AD.
  
  
  
  Fifty-one patients with early AD (MMSE > 18) and 15 healthy elderly controls were recruited. The sustained attention to response task (SART) was used to assess sustained attention. A subset of 25 patients also performed tasks assessing general cognitive function (ADAS-Cog), episodic memory (Logical memory scale, Paired Associates Learning), executive function (verbal fluency, grammatical reasoning) and working memory (digit and spatial span).
  
  
  
  AD patients were significantly impaired on the SART compared to healthy controls (total error β = 19.75, p = 0.027). SART errors significantly correlated with MMSE score (Spearman's rho = -0.338, p = 0.015) and significantly predicted deficits in ADAS-Cog (β = 0.14, p = 0.004).
  
  
  
  Patients with early AD have significant deficits in sustained attention, as measured using the SART. This may impair performance on general cognitive testing, and therefore should be taken into account during clinical assessment, and everyday management of individuals with early AD. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Huntley
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hampshire
authors.affiliation: Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bor
authors.affiliation: Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Adrian M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Owen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Howard
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012044:Regression Analysis
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; attention; cognition; neuropsychology