Diagnostic and Prognostic Role of Semantic Processing in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

Venneri, Annalena; Jahn-Carta, Caroline; Marco, Matteo De; Quaranta, Davide; Marra, Camillo

doi:10.2217/bmm-2017-0324

Cited by 36 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 119 publications

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“…Our results may strengthen the hypothesis of a very early impairment of semantic memory in Alzheimer's disease (Venneri et al, 2018). In fact, semantic memory is a component of declarative memory, organized on the basis of context shared by related lexical items (Kiefer and Pulvermüller, 2012), and involves the knowledge of concepts and words.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Semantic Relations in a Categorical Verbal Fluency Test: An Exploratory Investigation in Mild Cognitive Impairment

et al. 2019

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Categorical verbal fluency tests (CFT) are commonly used to assess the integrity of semantic memory in individuals with brain damage. Persons with Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type display a reduced output on CFT, and a similar pattern has been reported in persons with amnesic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI). The aims of the present study were to assess whether the semantic relations between lexical entries produced on a categorical fluency test were different between healthy persons and those with aMCI, and whether this difference was more pronounced in individuals who converted to dementia during a 3-year follow-up period. Methods: We recruited 34 individuals with aMCI and 29 matched healthy persons. During the follow-up period, 10 individuals converted to Dementia (aMCI-conv). Two measures assessing semantic relations between consecutively produced word pairs (Path length and Extended Gloss Overlap) were obtained from the Wordnet database. Results: The number of word pairs analyzed among the healthy participants (HP) and persons with aMCI were 498 (birds: 262; pieces of furniture: 236) and 395 (birds: 174; pieces of furniture: 221), respectively. Path length was lower in aMCI-conv than in HP (p = 0.035), but no differences were found between stable aMCI and HP, and between aMCI-stable and aMCI-conv. The ANOVA for lexical entries belonging to the "birds" category showed a significant effect of group (F = 5.630; p = 0.004); the post hoc analysis showed a significant difference between HP and aMCI-conv (p = 0.003). The "pieces of furniture" category was significantly affected by group (F = 4.107; p = 0.017); the post hoc test showed significant differences between aMCI-conv and healthy individuals (p = 0.049), and between aMCI-conv and stable aMCI (p = 0.001). Discussion: Individuals with aMCI who convert to dementia show a deterioration in the semantic relations between lexical entries, produced on a CFT. This phenomenon may be interpreted as a marker of a very early disruption of semantic memory.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Semantic Relations in a Categorical Verbal Fluency Test: An Exploratory Investigation in Mild Cognitive Impairment

et al. 2019

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“…It. The medial temporal lobe is important in semantic memory processing [49], an area of cognition that is impaired very early in sAD [50]. This is not the case for phonemic fluency which is supported by processes associated with frontal executive regions [51].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Immediate and delayed recall on the Logical Memory test were used as measures of episodic memory, the cognitive domain centrally defined by diagnostic criteria for a diagnosis of sAD. The performance on the Category Fluency test was used as an index of semantic memory, the cognitive domain affected by the accumulation of neurofibrillary pathology in the transentorhinal cortex [50]. Finally, the Letter Fluency test (phonemic fluency) was used as a methodological control, since performance on this task is often within normal age limits in patients with mild sAD [33,62].…”

Section: Neuropsychological Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deficits in Mitochondrial Spare Respiratory Capacity Contribute to the Neuropsychological Changes of Alzheimer’s Disease

Bell

Marco

Barnes

et al. 2020

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is diagnosed using neuropsychological testing, supported by amyloid and tau biomarkers and neuroimaging abnormalities. The cause of neuropsychological changes is not clear since they do not correlate with biomarkers. This study investigated if changes in cellular metabolism in AD correlate with neuropsychological changes. Fibroblasts were taken from 10 AD patients and 10 controls. Metabolic assessment included measuring total cellular ATP, extracellular lactate, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), mitochondrial respiration and glycolytic function. All participants were assessed with neuropsychological testing and brain structural MRI. AD patients had significantly lower scores in delayed and immediate recall, semantic memory, phonemic fluency and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). AD patients also had significantly smaller left hippocampal, left parietal, right parietal and anterior medial prefrontal cortical grey matter volumes. Fibroblast MMP, mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity (MSRC), glycolytic reserve, and extracellular lactate were found to be lower in AD patients. MSRC/MMP correlated significantly with semantic memory, immediate and delayed episodic recall. Correlations between MSRC and delayed episodic recall remained significant after controlling for age, education and brain reserve. Grey matter volumes did not correlate with MRSC/MMP. AD fibroblast metabolic assessment may represent an emergent disease biomarker of AD.

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“…The categories for access to lexicon were: car brands, animals and fruits (one minute per category), as originally chosen for the collection of the Italian normative data (Novelli, Papagno, Capitani, Laiacona, Vallar, & Cappa, 1986). Ample evidence indicates semantic processing is the central cognitive component addressed by this task (Venneri, Jahn-Carta, De Marco, Quaranta, & Marra, 2018). which show a degree of semantic relatedness (e.g., Carlesimo et al, 1998).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond episodic memory: Semantic processing as independent predictor of hippocampal/perirhinal volume in aging and mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease.

et al. 2019

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Objective: Given that lexical-semantic decline precedes episodic memory deficits in the Alzheimer disease (AD) timeline, it is expected that performance on a lexical-semantic task would be associated with mediotemporal volumes independently of the association this region has with episodic memory in the early stage of AD. Methods: Fifty patients with MCI due to AD and fifty healthy adults completed tests of lexical-semantic skills (Category Fluency), episodic memory for semantically-relevant material (Prose Memory), episodic memory for non-semantically-relevant material (Rey-Osterrieth Figure) and lexical-executive abilities (Letter Fluency), and a neurostructural MRI. Hippocampal, perirhinal, entorhinal, temporopolar and orbitofrontal volumes were extracted. The association between test performance and volume of each region was tested using partial correlations (age-education corrected). The improvement (r-squared change) at predicting volumetric indices offered by episodic memory/lexical-semantic processing, once accounting for their counterpart was tested using hierarchical regressions. Results: There were no significant findings for control indices. Prose Memory accounted for independent portions of volumetric variability within almost all regions. Category Fluency accounted for independent portions of volumetric variability of left/right hippocampus and left perirhinal cortex additional to the predictive strength of the Rey-Osterrieth Figure, and for an independent portion of volumetric variability in the left hippocampus additional to the predictive strength of Prose Memory. Conclusions: There was an association between hippocampal and perirhinal volume and lexicalsemantic processing, additional to the contribution given by episodic memory. This statistical separation supports the importance of lexical-semantic processing as independent indicator of AD.

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Diagnostic and Prognostic Role of Semantic Processing in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease

Cited by 36 publications

References 119 publications

Semantic Relations in a Categorical Verbal Fluency Test: An Exploratory Investigation in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Semantic Relations in a Categorical Verbal Fluency Test: An Exploratory Investigation in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Deficits in Mitochondrial Spare Respiratory Capacity Contribute to the Neuropsychological Changes of Alzheimer’s Disease

Beyond episodic memory: Semantic processing as independent predictor of hippocampal/perirhinal volume in aging and mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease.

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