Alzheimer’s
gene associated with failure to adapt to cognitive challenge in healthy adults

Date:

June 26, 2017

Source:

Society for Neuroscience

Summary:

Healthy adults carrying the gene APOE4 —
the strongest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) — may
struggle to adapt their brain activity to increasing cognitive demands as they
get older, according to a study.

Healthy adults carrying
the gene APOE4 — the strongest known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s
disease (AD) — may struggle to adapt their brain activity to increasing
cognitive demands as they get older, according to a study published in The
Journal of Neuroscience. This age-related effect, which was not observed in
people without the risk factor, suggests that interventions targeting cognitive
decline in at-risk populations may need to begin many years before any symptoms
of the disease emerge in order to be effective.

Karen Rodrigue and
colleagues assessed the performance of 31 adults (ages 20-86) with APOE4 on a
distance judgment task at different levels of difficulty while measuring their
brain activity. Although these at-risk participants showed similar adjustment
in brain activity to the difficulty of the task as non-APOE4 carrying adults of
the same age, sex, and education level, this ability declined with increasing
age in the individuals with APOE4. These changes occurred in the precuneus, a
part of the brain implicated in the early stages of AD, and reduced modulation
of this area was associated with poorer performance on the task. These findings
may help to inform the identification of individuals at increased risk of
developing the disease.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Society for Neuroscience.
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Journal Reference:

1.    Chris M. Foster, Kristen
M. Kennedy, Karen M. Rodrigue. Differential aging trajectories of modulation
of activation to cognitive challenge in APOE ε4 groups: Reduced modulation
predicts poorer cognitive performance. The Journal of Neuroscience,
2017; 3900-16 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3900-16.2017

Society
for Neuroscience. “Alzheimer’s gene associated with failure to adapt to
cognitive challenge in healthy adults.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26
June 2017.

Society
for Neuroscience. (2017, June 26). Alzheimer’s gene associated with failure to
adapt to cognitive challenge in healthy adults. ScienceDaily. Retrieved
June 28, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170626131756.htm

Society
for Neuroscience. “Alzheimer’s gene associated with failure to adapt to
cognitive challenge in healthy adults.” ScienceDaily.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170626131756.htm (accessed June 28,
2017).