Age-related changes of cognition in health and disease

描述（由申请人提供）：它代表了一系列关于认知、神经影像学、遗传和病理学测量的密切整合的研究，这些测量涉及衰老和阿尔茨海默病（AD）之间的界限。我们研究的首要目标仍然是描述阿尔茨海默病（AD）的前驱期，并将其与正常衰老相关的变化区分开来，以便在个人发展为可诊断的痴呆症之前预测谁会发展为AD。我们将评价的受试者包括三组个体;我们目前正在随访的受试者（称为队列1和2）和第三个队列（我们计划招募的队列3，以提供足够的样本量用于受试者的纵向分析）。 包括四个相互关联的领域：神经心理学评估（Albert项目）、单光子发射计算机断层扫描（SPECT）（约翰逊项目）、结构磁共振成像（MRI）（Killiany项目）和功能磁共振成像（fMRI）（Sperling项目）。四个核心将为项目提供必要的支持：行政和临床核心将负责受试者招募、评估和随访，数据管理和统计核心将维护一个中央数据库，提供统计咨询并完成综合和复杂的统计分析;遗传学核心将提供基因分型，神经病理学核心将提供尸检受试者的定量神经病理学数据，并将评估血浆每年都有关于这个主题的测试。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It represents a closely integrated series of studies on cognitive, neuroimaging, genetic and pathologic measures concerning the boundary between aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The overarching goal of our research continues to be to characterize the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and to differentiate it from changes related to normal aging, in order to predict who will develop AD many years before individuals develop a diagnosable dementia. The subjects we will evaluate consist of three groups of individuals; those we are currently following (known as Cohort 1 and 2) and a third cohort (Cohort 3 that we propose to recruit to provide sufficient sample size for longitudinal analyses with the subjects). Four interrelated areas are included: Neuropsychological assessment (Project by Albert), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) (Project by Johnson), structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Project by Killiany) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Project by Sperling). Four Cores will provide essential support to the projects: the Administrative and Clinical Core will be responsible for subject recruitment, evaluation, and follow-up, the Data Management and Statistical Core will maintain a central Database, provide statistical consultation and complete integrative and complex statistical analyses; the Genetics Core will provide genotyping and the Neuropathology Core will provide quantitative neuropathological data on subjects who come to autopsy and will evaluate plasma A-beta annually on the subjects.