Interaction between personality traits and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease pathology modulates cognitive performance.
BACKGROUND
During adulthood, personality characteristics may contribute to the individual capacity to compensate the impact of developing cerebral Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology on cognitive impairment in later life. In this study we aimed to investigate whether and how premorbid personality traits interact with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers of AD pathology to predict cognitive performance in subjects with mild cognitive impairment or mild AD dementia and in participants with normal cognition.


METHODS
One hundred and ten subjects, of whom 66 were patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild AD dementia and 44 were healthy controls, had a comprehensive medical and neuropsychological examination as well as lumbar puncture to measure CSF biomarkers of AD pathology (amyloid beta1-42, phosphorylated tau and total-tau). Participants' proxies completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, Form R to retrospectively assess subjects' premorbid personality.


RESULTS
In hierarchical multivariate regression analyses, including age, gender, education, APOEε4 status and cognitive level, premorbid neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness modulated the effect of CSF biomarkers on cognitive performance. Low premorbid openness independently predicted lower levels of cognitive functioning after controlling for biomarker concentrations.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that specific premorbid personality traits are associated with cerebral AD pathology and modulate its impact on cognitive performance. Considering personality characteristics may help to appraise a person's cognitive reserve and the risk of cognitive decline in later life.
Department of Psychiatry, Service of Old Age Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Ch. de Mont-Paisible 16, CH-1011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Domilė
D
Tautvydaitė
Department of Psychiatry, Service of Old Age Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Ch. de Mont-Paisible 16, CH-1011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Deepti
D
Kukreja
Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Jean-Philippe
JP
Antonietti
Service of Biomedicine, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Hugues
H
Henry
Department of Psychiatry, Service of Old Age Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Ch. de Mont-Paisible 16, CH-1011, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Armin
A
von Gunten
Department of Psychiatry, Service of Old Age Psychiatry, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), Ch. de Mont-Paisible 16, CH-1011, Lausanne, Switzerland. julius.popp@chuv.ch.
Julius
J
Popp
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D053327:Apolipoprotein E4 / Q000235:genetics; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013129:Spinal Puncture
D053327:Apolipoprotein E4; D015415:Biomarkers
Alzheimer’s disease; Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers; Cognition; Mild cognitive impairment; Premorbid personality