Psychologists find more sensitive tests for predicting Alzheimer's as well as changes in...( WASHINGTON -- Two recent studies may he...),Health

WASHINGTON -- Two recent studies may help clinicians and researchers better predict and understand dementia of the Alzheimer's type early in its history. Both studies appear in the September issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Psychologists focus on early detection in part because current medications are useful only when given very early in the course of the disease.

In the first study, psychologists Pauline Spaan, PhD, and Jeroen Raaijmakers, PhD, from the University of Amsterdam in collaboration with neurologist Cees Jonker, MD, PhD, from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam analyzed the data on 119 participants in the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, a large, population-based study of older people. The researchers visited older people in their homes and gave them memory tests loaded on laptop computers. Two years later, they compared the test scores of people who went on to develop Alzheimer's with the scores of those who stayed healthy.

The researchers analyzed memory components that included episodic (what happened; what did you hear or read); semantic (vocabulary, facts); and implicit (learning without awareness of learning, "priming"). Three tests were very good at predicting who would develop Alzheimer's by two years later. Participants for whom "priming" information didn't aid memory or whose learning wasn't aided by semantic knowledge -- were significantly more likely to develop Alzheimer's.

The strongly predictive tests were, in order of their power, a Paired-Associate Learning Test, which cued participants to recall five semantically related and five semantically unrelated pairs of words; and a Perceptual Identification Task, which measured how fast participants read aloud words briefly presented on a computer screen. To test implicit memory, experimenters repeated some words to see whether "priming" took place, which would help participants read those words fa
'"/>

Contact: Pam Willenz
pwillenz@apa.org
American Psychological Association
25-Sep-2005

Page: 1 2 3 4
Related medicine news :

1. Psychologists glimpse biological imprint of childhood neglect
2. Light-sensitive photoswitches could restore sight to those with macular degeneration
3. Adolescent brains are insensitive to alcohol for a short time, but at great cost
4. Examination not sensitive enough to detect breech babies
5. New strategy more sensitive at detecting cervical cancer than smear test
6. Advanced prostate cancer remains sensitive to treatment even after holidays from chemotherapy
7. Soaring UK rates of Chlamydia infection partly caused by more sensitive tests
8. Study reveals reason women are more sensitive to pain than men
9. People with diabetes more sensitive to cardiovascular effects from air pollution
10. Holograms make for better vision tests
11. Study tests oral insulin to prevent type 1 diabetes