Decreased meta-memory is associated with early tauopathy in cognitively unimpaired older adults
Year: 2019
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The ability to accurately judge memory efficiency (meta-memory monitoring) for newly learned (episodic) information, is decreased in older adults and even worse in Alzheimer's disease (AD), whereas no differences have been found for semantic meta-memory. The pathological substrates of this phenomenon are poorly understood. Here, we examine the association between meta-memory monitoring for episodic and semantic information to the two major proteinopathies in AD: amyloid (Aβ) and tau pathology in a group of cognitively unimpaired older adults. All participants underwent multi-tracer PET and meta-memory monitoring was assessed using a feeling-of-knowing (FOK) task for non-famous (episodic) and famous (semantic) face-name pairs. Whole brain voxel-wise correlations between meta-memory and PET data were conducted (controlling for memory), as well as confirmatory region-of-interest analyses. Participants had reduced episodic FOK compared to semantic FOK. Decreased episodic FOK was related to tauopathy in the medial temporal lobe regions, including the entorhinal cortex and temporal pole, whereas decreased semantic FOK was related to increased tau in regions associated with the semantic knowledge network. No association was found with Aβ-pathology. Alterations in the ability to accurately judge memory efficiency (in the absence of memory decline) may be a sensitive clinical indicator of AD pathophysiology in the pre-symptomatic phase.
Source: NeuroImage Clinical
Institutions: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, UCLouvain, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Institut Guttmann, Berenson Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,600
Funders: Alzheimer's Association, Massachusetts General Hospital, European Commission, Centre d'Imagerie BioMédicale, National Institutes of Health, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Awards: G1032888771, G1360098495, G2080581370, G3171611343, Mentoring Imaging Research in Early AD, G434337789, Functional and pathological correlates of memory self-awareness in aging and AD, Connecting neuronal network activity with regional specificity for Alzheimer pathology: a multi-modal neuroimaging approach, Center for Functional Imaging Technologies, G9000121663, G9000207650, Impact of Amyloid and Tau on the Aging Brain: The Harvard Aging Brain Study, Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (MADRC)
OpenAlex ID: W2984280781