Albert M S
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02114, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Nov 26;93(24):13547-51. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.24.13547.
Recent studies indicate that impairments in two cognitive domains characterize the cognitive abnormalities that appear earliest in the course of Alzheimer disease (AD). These cognitive domains pertain to memory and executive function ability; in particular, memory test scores reflecting the difference between immediate and delayed recall and tasks that assess cognitive flexibility (e.g., set-shifting). Preliminary data indicate that tasks of this nature, along with specific genetic information (i.e., APOE-4 status), are important in identifying which individuals with recent cognitive changes (considered to have "questionable" disease) will progress to the point where they meet criteria for AD over time. When this cognitive and genetic information is combined with neuroimaging measures targeted at the brain regions demonstrating pathology early in AD, it may serve as specific and accurate prognostic markers of AD.
近期研究表明,两种认知领域的损伤是阿尔茨海默病(AD)病程中最早出现的认知异常的特征。这些认知领域与记忆和执行功能能力有关;特别是反映即时回忆和延迟回忆之间差异的记忆测试分数,以及评估认知灵活性的任务(例如,任务转换)。初步数据表明,这类任务以及特定的基因信息(即APOE - 4状态)对于确定哪些近期有认知变化(被认为患有“可疑”疾病)的个体随着时间推移会发展到符合AD标准非常重要。当这种认知和基因信息与针对AD早期出现病理的脑区的神经影像学测量相结合时,它可能作为AD的特异性和准确的预后标志物。