The Latin American Spanish version of the Face-Name Associative Memory Exam is sensitive to cognitive and pathological changes in preclinical autosomal dominant Alzheimer\u2019s disease

Clara Vila-Castelar,Rebecca E Amariglio,Ana Baena,Eric M Reiman,Edmarie Guzmán-Vélez,Yamile Bocanegra,Dorene M Rentz,Francisco Lopera,Keith A Johnson,Yakeel T Quiroz,Nathalia Muñoz,Justin S Sanchez,Reisa A Sperling,Kathryn V Papp

doi:10.1186/s13195-020-00671-w

Abstract

BackgroundTo determine whether performance on the Latin American Spanish version of the Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (LAS-FNAME) can differentiate between cognitively intact carriers of an autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease mutation (E280A) in Presenilin-1, who are genetically determined to develop early-onset dementia, from matched non-carriers. We also sought to examine whether LAS-FNAME performance is associated with amyloid-β and regional tau burden in mutation carriers.MethodsA total of 35 cognitively intact mutation carriers (age range 26–41), 19 symptomatic carriers, and 48 matched non-carriers (age range 27–44) completed a neuropsychological assessment including the LAS-FNAME. A subset of participants (31 carriers [12 symptomatic] and 35 non-carriers) traveled from Colombia to Boston to undergo positron emission tomography (PET) using Pittsburgh compound B to measure mean cortical amyloid-β and flortaucipir for regional tau. ANOVA analyses and Spearman correlations were used to examine group differences and relationships among LAS-FNAME performance and amyloid-β and tau accumulation.ResultsCompared to non-carriers, cognitively intact mutation carriers had lower scores on the LAS-FNAME Total Scores (p = .040). Across all carriers (including symptomatic carriers), higher levels of amyloid-β (r = − .436, p = .018) and regional tau in the entorhinal (r = − .394, p = .031) and inferior temporal cortex (r = − .563, p = .001) were associated with lower LAS-FNAME Total Scores.ConclusionsPerformance on the LAS-FNAME differentiated between cognitively intact mutation carriers from non-carriers and was associated with greater amyloid and tau burden when examining all carriers. Findings suggest that the LAS-FNAME is sensitive to early clinical and pathological changes and can potentially help track disease progression in Spanish-speaking individuals.

Highlights

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects 6 million individuals in the USA [1]
Among cognitively intact PSEN1 mutation carriers, performance on the LAS-Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (FNAME) was not associated with Entorhinal cortex (EC) tau (Immediate DM Delayed Memory (Memory): r = − .085, p = .746; Delayed Memory: r = .303, p = .237; df degrees of freedom (Total) Score: r = .236, p = .362). When examining these associations across all PSEN1 mutation carriers, we found that greater EC tau was associated with lower LAS-FNAME Total Score (r = − .394, p = .031) (Fig. 2c) and Immediate Memory scores (r = − .435, p = .016), while Delayed Memory scores showed a trend towards significance (r = − .350, p = .058)
Differences in LAS-FNAME scores were even greater when examining across all PSEN1 mutation carriers by including symptomatic carriers who were further along the disease trajectory

Summary

Introduction

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects 6 million individuals in the USA [1]. Latinos have a higher rate of AD than nonHispanic whites [2], which is expected to rise rapidly due to population aging [3]. There is a need to develop neuropsychological measures to detect AD-pathology in Spanish-speaking individuals and track cognitive changes along the ADtrajectory [4]. The FNAME is a highly demanding, associative memory test, which tracks memory changes along the AD-spectrum [6,7,8] that has been shown to be correlated with Aβ accumulation in clinically normal older adults [7, 9] and adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) [10]. To determine whether performance on the Latin American Spanish version of the Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (LAS-FNAME) can differentiate between cognitively intact carriers of an autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease mutation (E280A) in Presenilin-1, who are genetically determined to develop earlyonset dementia, from matched non-carriers. We sought to examine whether LAS-FNAME performance is associated with amyloid-β and regional tau burden in mutation carriers

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