Regional amyloid correlates of cognitive performance in ageing and mild cognitive impairment

Beta-amyloid deposition is one of the earliest pathological markers associated with Alzheimer's disease. Mild cognitive impairment in the setting of beta-amyloid deposition is considered to represent a preclinical manifestation of Alzheimer's disease. In vivo imaging studies are unique in their potential to advance our understanding of the role of beta-amyloid deposition in cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease and in mild cognitive impairment. Previous work has shown an association between global cortical measures of beta-amyloid deposition (‘amyloid positivity’) in mild cognitive impairment with greater cognitive deficits and greater risk of progression to Alzheimer's disease. The focus of the present study was to examine the relationship between the regional distribution of beta-amyloid deposition and specific cognitive deficits in people with mild cognitive impairment and cognitively normal elderly individuals. Forty-seven participants with multi-domain, amnestic mild cognitive impairment (43% female, aged 57–82 years) and 37 healthy, cognitively normal comparison subjects (42% female, aged 55–82 years) underwent clinical and neuropsychological assessments and high-resolution positron emission tomography with the radiotracer (11)C-labelled Pittsburgh compound B to measure beta-amyloid deposition. Brain–behaviour partial least-squares analysis was conducted to identify spatial patterns of beta-amyloid deposition that correlated with the performance on neuropsychological assessments. Partial least-squares analysis identified a single significant (P < 0.001) latent variable which accounted for 80% of the covariance between demographic and cognitive measures and beta-amyloid deposition. Performance in immediate verbal recall (R = −0.46 ± 0.07, P < 0.001), delayed verbal recall (R = −0.39 ± 0.09, P < 0.001), immediate visual-spatial recall (R = −0.39 ± 0.08, P < 0.001), delayed visual-spatial recall (R = −0.45 ± 0.08, P < 0.001) and semantic fluency (R = −0.33 ± 0.11, P = 0.002) but not phonemic fluency (R = −0.05 ± 0.12, P < 0.705) negatively covaried with beta-amyloid deposition in the identified regions. Partial least-squares analysis of the same cognitive measures with grey matter volumes showed similar associations in overlapping brain regions. These findings suggest that the regional distribution of beta-amyloid deposition and grey matter volumetric decreases is associated with deficits in executive function and memory in mild cognitive impairment. Longitudinal analysis of these relationships may advance our understanding of the role of beta-amyloid deposition in relation to grey matter volumetric decreases in cognitive decline.