Memory dissociations and risk for AD versus VaD

描述(申请人提供)：阿尔茨海默病(AD)和血管性痴呆(VAD)的患病率正在迅速上升。这些疾病的早期发现是至关重要的，特别是现在在诊断和治疗方面已经取得了重大进展。AD的早期特征是内侧颞叶(MTL)结构的萎缩，因此，情景记忆丧失是一个明显的特征。在VAD中，认知障碍是由于额叶(FL)脑区的血管损伤引起的，结果是执行功能障碍占主导地位。目前的诊断标准包括记忆丧失作为这两种疾病的主要神经心理症状。然而，考虑到不同的认知和神经解剖学特征，很可能AD和VAD的潜在记忆障碍也是不同的。为了更清楚地阐明AD和VAD高危个体的记忆功能，我们提出了两个实验来研究AD和VAD高危个体的MTL和FL记忆功能。在这些任务中的表现将与从复杂的神经成像技术收集的解剖数据相关联，该技术旨在捕捉MTL和FL脑区潜在的神经元完整性。总而言之，这些数据将为当前关于痴呆症风险的文献提供宝贵的临床和理论贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VaD) is increasing rapidly. Early detection of these disorders is critical, particularly now that significant progress has been made regarding diagnosis and treatment. The beginning stages of AD are characterized by atrophy to medial temporal lobe (MTL) structures, and consequently, episodic memory loss is a defining feature. In VaD, cognitive deficits arise from vascular damage to frontal lobe (FL) brain regions, and as a result, executive functioning deficits prevail. Current diagnostic criteria include memory loss as the primary neuropsychological symptom for both diseases. However, given the distinct cognitive and neuroanatomical characteristics, it is likely that the underlying memory disorders for AD and VaD are distinctive as well. In order to more clearly elucidate memory functioning in individuals at risk for developing AD and VaD, we propose two experiments which will investigate MTL and FL memory functioning in individuals at risk for AD and VaD. Performance on these tasks will be correlated with anatomical data gathered from sophisticated neuroimaging techniques designed to capture the underlying neuronal integrity of MTL and FL brain areas. Collectively, this data will provide invaluable clinical and theoretical contributions to the current literature on dementia risk.