The neurobiological correlates of functional decline in older adults with early cognitive impairment
Poster No:
891
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Hannes Almgren1, Pinghsiu Lin1, Rachael Yu1, Johannes Michaelian1, Loren Mowszowski1, Sharon Naismith1
Institutions:
1The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales
First Author:
Co-Author(s):
Introduction:
With the recent breakthroughs in monoclonal antibodies (mAbs; Cummings, 2023) there is an urgent need for better questionnaires of functional decline in aging adults for further clinical studies. Recently, the Healthy Brain Ageing – Functional Assessment Questionnaire (HBA-FAQ) was developed, which is an improved tool to detect early functional decline (Lin et al., 2023). In this study we assessed the neurobiological correlates of functional decline in an aging cohort assessed with the HBA-FAQ.
Methods:
A sample of 227 participants were included in this study, of which 123 were classified as subjective cognitive decline and 104 as objective cognitive impairment (MCI or mild AD). We focused on the association between HBA-FAQ total scores and brain volume (hippocampus, temporal, frontal, total brain volume), blood-based biomarkers (Aß42, NfL, GFAP, p-tau181), and APOE-ɛ4 status. Both self-report and carer-report total scores were assessed. Partial Spearman correlations (rs,p) were used for associations with brain volumes and blood-based markers, while Brunner-Munzer tests was used to compare APoE-e4 carriers with non-carriers. Results were corrected for multiple comparisons using Bonferroni's method.
Results:
In general, our results showed that HBA-FAQ total scores are related to underlying markers of ageing and dementia in the total group and MCI/mAD, but not in SCD. We observed significant negative associations in the total group with temporal, frontal, and total brain volumes (Figure 1; rs,p = -0.23, pBonf = 0.019; rs,p = -0.23, pBonf = 0.015; rs,p = -0.23, pBonf = 0.18), and positive associations with GFAP and p-tau 181 concentrations (Figure 2; rs,p = 0.21, pBonf = 0.028; rs,p = 0.23, pBonf = 0.013). APoE-e4 carriers showed higher HBA-FAQ total scores than non-carriers (W = -2.11 , p = 0.038). Most significant associations were also found in the subgroup with objective cognitive impairment (four out of six for both self- and carer-report scores).
·Figure 1
·Figure 2
Conclusions:
Functional decline as measured with the HBA-FAQ instrument is related to various neurobiological markers of ageing and dementia in older adults with objective cognitive impairment, showing the biological validity of the HBA-FAQ instrument. However, no associations were found in the group with subjective cognitive decline which might present with subtle neurobiological changes that are not detectable with current methods. Future work should focus on identifying participants with subjective cognitive decline that show objective change in biomarkers.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Neurodegenerative/ Late Life (eg. Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s)
Lifespan Development:
Aging 1
Neuroanatomy, Physiology, Metabolism and Neurotransmission:
Cortical Anatomy and Brain Mapping 2
Subcortical Structures
Keywords:
Aging
Degenerative Disease
STRUCTURAL MRI
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Provide references using APA citation style.
Lin, P., LaMonica, H. M., Naismith, S. L., & Mowszowski, L. (2023). Identifying subtle functional change in individuals with mild cognitive impairment: Development and validation of the Healthy Brain Ageing – Functional Assessment Questionnaire. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 30(4), 536–554. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825585.2022.2057910