The diagnostic usefulness of experimental memory tasks for detecting subjective cognitive decline: Preliminary results in an Italian sample.

Abstract

Objective: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) was recently proposed as an early risk factor for future mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, we investigated the sensitivity of novel neuropsychological testing paradigms (which have been proposed as potentially challenging tools for the identification of preclinical AD) in capturing the subtle cognitive changes leading to SCD but not objectively detected by traditional tests. Method: The performances of 18 patients with SCD and 15 healthy individuals with no worries of cognitive decline (healthy controls [HC]) was compared on demanding tasks that investigated, respectively, associative memory, memory binding, spatial pattern separation processes and semantic memory. The diagnostic utility of these tests in capturing the subtle cognitive changes associated with SCD and possible relationships with SCD-related worries were investigated. Results: No significance between-group difference was found on the standard neuropsychological tests. Conversely, the performance of patients with SCD and HC differed significantly on specific indexes derived from experimental tasks assessing face–name associative memory and spatial pattern separation. Moreover, these measures correctly classified group membership with good overall accuracy (between 79% and 82%) and were significantly associated with self-perceived memory functioning. Conclusions: Our preliminary findings suggest that specific measures derived from demanding cognitive paradigms could be sensitive neuropsychological indexes for detecting the subtle cognitive impairment associated with SCD. These observations could be useful for further refining cognitive assessment aimed at early detection of AD.

The Use of Executive Fluency Tasks to Detect Cognitive Impairment in Individuals with Subjective Cognitive Decline

“…In those tasks, the lower performance level of the participants with SCD was not attributable to differences among the groups in terms of education level or depressive symptoms. These results are in line with studies indicating that tasks with a high cognitive processing load may be helpful for detecting impairment in SCD [ 20 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 50 , 51 ].…”

“…Based on the findings of a six-year longitudinal study, Brailean et al argued that a decrease in subjective memory performance that cannot be explained by depressive symptoms may be detected by self-reported memory complaints [ 19 ]. Meanwhile, a recent study of a small group of individuals with SCD revealed an association between performance on demanding cognitive tasks and self-perceived memory functioning [ 20 ].…”

Special issue on “Novel neuropsychological instruments for the prodromal and preclinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease”.

“…Somewhat different results were reported by De Simone et al (2022) in a study that investigated the diagnostic accuracy of a number of tests (including the FNAME test used by Flores-Vázquez et al, 2022) in distinguishing clinically diagnosed SCD participants from healthy controls. They found that the face-name test and a test assessing short-term pattern separation significantly discriminated between the two groups with good overall accuracy and that they were significantly associated with self-perceived memory functioning.…”

Brain Health and Cognition in Older Adults: Roadmap and Milestones towards the Implementation of Preventive Strategies

“…These deficits could play a role in the progression to MCI. Moreover, it could be possible that new, more demanding tests might exhibit higher sensitivity for SCD [24]. However, depending on the cutoff, even standard neuropsychological tests may show interesting results.…”