Department of Psychology, Centre for Research in Human Development>, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Centre for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;83(3):1125-1148. doi: 10.3233/JAD-201521.
Visual impairment is associated with deficits in cognitive function and risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD).
The purpose of this study was to characterize the degree of visual impairment and explore the association thereof with cortical atrophy in brain regions associated with visual processing in individuals with (or at risk for) AD.
Using the Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia (COMPASS-ND) dataset, we analyzed vision and brain imaging data from three diagnostic groups: individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD; N = 35), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; N = 74), and mild AD (N = 30). We used ANCOVAs to determine whether performance on reading acuity and contrast sensitivity tests differed across diagnostic groups. Hierarchical regression analyses were applied to determine whether visual performance predicted gray matter volume for vision-related regions of interest above and beyond group membership.
The AD group performed significantly worse on reading acuity (F(2,138) = 4.12, p < 0.01, ω2 = 0.04) compared to the SCD group and on contrast sensitivity (F(2,138) = 7.6, p < 0.01, ω2 = 0.09) compared to the SCD and MCI groups, which did not differ from each other. Visual performance was associated with volume in some vision-related structures beyond clinical diagnosis.
Our findings demonstrate poor visual performance in AD and that both group membership and visual performance are predictors of cortical pathology, consistent with the idea that atrophy in visual areas and pathways contributes to the functional vision deficits observed in AD.
视力障碍与认知功能缺陷以及认知能力下降和阿尔茨海默病（AD）的风险相关。
本研究旨在描述视力障碍的程度，并探讨其与 AD 患者（或有 AD 风险的患者）大脑中与视觉处理相关的区域皮质萎缩之间的关联。
利用综合神经退行性疾病和痴呆评估（COMPASS-ND）数据集，我们分析了来自三个诊断组的视力和脑成像数据：主观认知下降（SCD；N=35）、轻度认知障碍（MCI；N=74）和轻度 AD（N=30）。我们使用方差分析（ANCOVA）来确定阅读视力和对比敏感度测试的表现是否因诊断组而异。应用分层回归分析来确定视觉表现是否可以预测与视觉相关的感兴趣区域的灰质体积，而不仅仅是组别的归属。
与 SCD 组相比，AD 组在阅读视力（F(2,138)=4.12，p<0.01，ω2=0.04）上的表现明显更差，并且在对比敏感度（F(2,138)=7.6，p<0.01，ω2=0.09）上的表现与 SCD 和 MCI 组相比也更差，而 SCD 和 MCI 组之间的表现没有差异。视觉表现与一些与视觉相关的结构的体积有关，超出了临床诊断的范围。
我们的发现表明 AD 患者存在较差的视觉表现，并且组别的归属和视觉表现都是皮质病理的预测因素，这与视觉区域和通路的萎缩导致 AD 患者观察到的功能视力缺陷的观点一致。
