Poster Session 06 Program Schedule
02/15/2024
04:00 pm - 05:15 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 06: Aging | MCI | Neurodegenerative Disease - PART 2
Final Abstract #48
The Gestalt of Cognition in Cognitive Aging: A Network Approach to Cognitive Performance in Individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline and Across the Alzheimer’s Disease Continuum
Nicholas Grunden, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Natalie Phillips, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
Category: Dementia (Alzheimer's Disease)
Keyword 1: aging disorders
Keyword 2: dementia - Alzheimer's disease
Objective:
Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is characterized by subjective concerns of cognitive change despite test performance within normal ranges at the univariate level. Despite the risk for those with SCD to develop further cognitive decline, we have not yet discovered methods using cognitive measures that can reliably distinguish SCD from cognitively normal aging. Network analysis may help to address this issue by modeling cognitive performance as a web of intertwined cognitive abilities, providing insight into the multivariate associations determining cognitive status. Following previous network studies of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD), the current study centered upon the novel visualization and analysis of the SCD cognitive network compared to cognitively normal (CN) older adult, MCI, and AD group networks.
Participants and Methods:
Cross-sectional neuropsychological data from two Canadian aging cohort studies, CIMA-Q and COMPASS-ND, to construct Gaussian graphical models for CN (n = 122), SCD (n = 207), MCI (n = 210), and AD (n = 79) groups. Group networks were explored in terms of global network structure, prominent edge weights, and strength centrality indices. CN and SCD group networks were contrasted using the Network Comparison Test.
Results:
CN and SCD groups did not differ in terms of univariate cognitive performance or global network structure. However, measures of strength centrality showed a CN-SCD-MCI gradient where differences in correlation patterns within the SCD network suggest that SCD is an intermediary between CN and MCI stages. Additional results may indicate a distinctiveness of network structure in AD, a reversal in network influence between age and general cognitive status as clinical impairment increases, and potential evidence for cognitive reserve.
Conclusions:
Taken together, these results provide evidence that network-specific metrics are sensitive to cognitive performance changes across the dementia risk spectrum and may help to distinguish SCD cognitive performance from that of CN individuals.
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