title: Cognitive resilience in clinical and preclinical Alzheimer's disease: the Association of Amyloid and Tau Burden on cognitive performance.
abstract: We explored the cross-sectional relationships between β-amyloid (Aβ) and inferior temporal tau deposition (IFT Tau) on cognitive performance and whether cognitive reserve (CR) modifies these associations. We studied 156 participants classified into groups of clinically normal (CN = 133), mild cognitive impairment (MCI = 17) and Alzheimer disease (AD = 6) dementia. AMNART IQ served as a proxy of CR and cognitive performance was assessed using the MMSE. In separate linear regression models predicting MMSE, we examined the interactions of CR x global Aβ and CR x IFT tau across all participants and within the CN group alone. In the whole sample, the interaction between CR and IFT tau was significant (p < 0.003), such that higher CR participants with elevated IFT tau had better MMSE scores compared with low CR participants with similar levels of IFT tau. The interaction between CR and Aβ status did not reach significance (p = 0.093). In CN only, no cross-sectional interactions among CR, Aβ, and IFT tau were observed on MMSE. These findings imply that CR may be protective against early AD processes and enable some individuals to remain cognitively stable despite elevated tau and Aβ burden.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. drentz@bwh.harvard.edu.|Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. drentz@bwh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Dorene M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Rentz
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Mormino
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Papp
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Betensky
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Reisa A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Sperling
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.|Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.|Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02114, USA.
authors.forename: Keith A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D058227:Amyloidogenic Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003071:Cognition; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D058227:Amyloidogenic Proteins; D015415:Biomarkers; D016875:tau Proteins
keywords: Aging; Amyloid PET imaging; Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease; Resilience; Tau PET imaging