Cargando…

Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease

Dementia researchers around the world prioritize the urgent need for sensitive measurement tools that can detect cognitive and functional change at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Sensitive indicators of underlying neural pathology assist in the early detection of cognitive cha...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Christ, Björn U., Combrinck, Marc I., Thomas, Kevin G. F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5900796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29686610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00124
_version_ 1783314481625956352
author Christ, Björn U.
Combrinck, Marc I.
Thomas, Kevin G. F.
author_facet Christ, Björn U.
Combrinck, Marc I.
Thomas, Kevin G. F.
author_sort Christ, Björn U.
collection PubMed
description Dementia researchers around the world prioritize the urgent need for sensitive measurement tools that can detect cognitive and functional change at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Sensitive indicators of underlying neural pathology assist in the early detection of cognitive change and are thus important for the evaluation of early-intervention clinical trials. One method that may be particularly well-suited to help achieve this goal involves the quantification of intraindividual variability (IIV) in cognitive performance. The current study aimed to directly compare two methods of estimating IIV (fluctuations in accuracy-based scores vs. those in latency-based scores) to predict cognitive performance in AD. Specifically, we directly compared the relative sensitivity of reaction time (RT)—and accuracy-based estimates of IIV to cognitive compromise. The novelty of the present study, however, centered on the patients we tested [a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD)] and the outcome measures we used (a measure of general cognitive function and a measure of episodic memory function). Hence, we compared intraindividual standard deviations (iSDs) from two RT tasks and three accuracy-based memory tasks in patients with possible or probable Alzheimer's dementia (n = 23) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). The main analyses modeled the relative contributions of RT vs. accuracy-based measures of IIV toward the prediction of performance on measures of (a) overall cognitive functioning, and (b) episodic memory functioning. Results indicated that RT-based IIV measures are superior predictors of neurocognitive impairment (as indexed by overall cognitive and memory performance) than accuracy-based IIV measures, even after adjusting for the timescale of measurement. However, one accuracy-based IIV measure (derived from a recognition memory test) also differentiated patients with AD from controls, and significantly predicted episodic memory performance. The findings suggest that both RT- and accuracy-based IIV measures may be useful indicators of underlying neuropathology. The present study therefore contributes toward an understanding of the relative utility of RT- and accuracy-based IIV measures in detecting neurocognitive impairment in older adults, and also advances the empirical evaluation of sensitive markers of cognitive change in patients with AD.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5900796
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-59007962018-04-23 Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease Christ, Björn U. Combrinck, Marc I. Thomas, Kevin G. F. Front Hum Neurosci Neuroscience Dementia researchers around the world prioritize the urgent need for sensitive measurement tools that can detect cognitive and functional change at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Sensitive indicators of underlying neural pathology assist in the early detection of cognitive change and are thus important for the evaluation of early-intervention clinical trials. One method that may be particularly well-suited to help achieve this goal involves the quantification of intraindividual variability (IIV) in cognitive performance. The current study aimed to directly compare two methods of estimating IIV (fluctuations in accuracy-based scores vs. those in latency-based scores) to predict cognitive performance in AD. Specifically, we directly compared the relative sensitivity of reaction time (RT)—and accuracy-based estimates of IIV to cognitive compromise. The novelty of the present study, however, centered on the patients we tested [a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD)] and the outcome measures we used (a measure of general cognitive function and a measure of episodic memory function). Hence, we compared intraindividual standard deviations (iSDs) from two RT tasks and three accuracy-based memory tasks in patients with possible or probable Alzheimer's dementia (n = 23) and matched healthy controls (n = 25). The main analyses modeled the relative contributions of RT vs. accuracy-based measures of IIV toward the prediction of performance on measures of (a) overall cognitive functioning, and (b) episodic memory functioning. Results indicated that RT-based IIV measures are superior predictors of neurocognitive impairment (as indexed by overall cognitive and memory performance) than accuracy-based IIV measures, even after adjusting for the timescale of measurement. However, one accuracy-based IIV measure (derived from a recognition memory test) also differentiated patients with AD from controls, and significantly predicted episodic memory performance. The findings suggest that both RT- and accuracy-based IIV measures may be useful indicators of underlying neuropathology. The present study therefore contributes toward an understanding of the relative utility of RT- and accuracy-based IIV measures in detecting neurocognitive impairment in older adults, and also advances the empirical evaluation of sensitive markers of cognitive change in patients with AD. Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-04-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5900796/ /pubmed/29686610 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00124 Text en Copyright © 2018 Christ, Combrinck and Thomas. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Christ, Björn U.
Combrinck, Marc I.
Thomas, Kevin G. F.
Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease
title Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease
title_full Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease
title_fullStr Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease
title_full_unstemmed Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease
title_short Both Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures of Intraindividual Variability Predict Cognitive Performance in Alzheimer's Disease
title_sort both reaction time and accuracy measures of intraindividual variability predict cognitive performance in alzheimer's disease
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5900796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29686610
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00124
work_keys_str_mv AT christbjornu bothreactiontimeandaccuracymeasuresofintraindividualvariabilitypredictcognitiveperformanceinalzheimersdisease
AT combrinckmarci bothreactiontimeandaccuracymeasuresofintraindividualvariabilitypredictcognitiveperformanceinalzheimersdisease
AT thomaskevingf bothreactiontimeandaccuracymeasuresofintraindividualvariabilitypredictcognitiveperformanceinalzheimersdisease