Predicting Alzheimer?s risk: Why cognitive testing alone may not work

James Rowe — a University of Cambridge researcher and senior author of the paper — and his collaborators endeavored to answer these questions and investigate underlying causes in their new study.The findings appear in the Journal of Neuroscience.Clinical researchers are increasingly focused on accurately identifying those people who may be at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. On Monday, scientists from the Cambridge Centre for Frontotemporal Dementia and Related Disorders revealed the results of their study comparing cognitively frail people with those living with healthy cognition, MCI, and Alzheimer’s disease. And, structurally, the brains of cognitively frail people were similar to those of individuals who were cognitively healthy.The brains of the cognitively frail individuals were clearly different than those of the people with MCI or Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Kocagoncu mused, “First, tests that are often used in the clinic to help diagnose dementia — such as the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) — are unlikely to give an accurate picture of our cognitive health when used alone.” “The results of the cognitive tests should be interpreted with caution, and we should consider other factors that might be contributing to suboptimal performance.” “Second, the cognitive underperformance might be instead a result of an accumulation of psychosocial, lifestyle, and medical risk factors.” “Factors like malnutrition, social isolation, stress, depression, sedentary lifestyle, hearing/vision impairment, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation, and lower education levels are known to contribute to worsening cognitive function.”– Dr. KocagoncuProf. [W]e need to detect problems early so we can be more aggressive to address factors early that might fuel disease, even if it’s cardiovascular risk factors, [i.e.,] be more aggressive about treating high blood pressure, hyperglycemia, and high cholesterol.” “[T]he fact of the matter is we have an aging population and, as a result, an increasing burden of people who are significantly cognitively impaired […].