Within-Person Across-Neuropsychological Test Variability and Incident Dementia

Cognitive Domain Dispersion Association with Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology

“…However, the association between dispersion and NFTs was moderated by age at death. Contrary to previous studies [13][14][15][16], our findings did not show that cognitive dispersion using ISD was able to differentiate NCI from MCI, suggesting that intra-individual cognitive domain dispersion does not reflect early neuropathological changes, at least between the RROS clinical groups examined. On the other hand, Holtzer et al [13] suggested that intra-individual cognitive domain dispersion serves as a marker for AD pathology and that increases in dispersion reflect the degradation of cortical interdomain networks involved in cognitive function.…”

“…Contrary to previous studies [13][14][15][16], our findings did not show that cognitive dispersion using ISD was able to differentiate NCI from MCI, suggesting that intra-individual cognitive domain dispersion does not reflect early neuropathological changes, at least between the RROS clinical groups examined. On the other hand, Holtzer et al [13] suggested that intra-individual cognitive domain dispersion serves as a marker for AD pathology and that increases in dispersion reflect the degradation of cortical interdomain networks involved in cognitive function. The present findings of an association between ISD and NFTs lends support to this observation since tangle pathology reflect neuronal degeneration, which would lead to a cortical network disconnection syndrome in AD.…”

Intraindividual Cognitive Variability in Middle Age Predicts Cognitive Impairment 8–10 Years Later: Results from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention

“…When the continuous baseline memory and executive function scores were included in the corresponding models (Model 4), the effects of IICV were attenuated to a non-significant level, suggesting that the calculation of continuous IICV may not provide any additional information regarding subsequent risk above and beyond the individual test scores in a late middle-age cognitively normal sample. These findings contrast with those observed by Holtzer et al (2008). In their study, IICV was calculated using tests from the same domains used for our 4 Test IICV in an older sample (mean ( SD ) age=78.6 (5.3), n =897).…”

The utility of intraindividual variability in selective attention tasks as an early marker for Alzheimer’s disease.

“…Therefore, in addition to the increase in variability across trials within a task, there is also evidence of an increase in variability across tasks within individuals across groups. These findings are consistent with a recent study by Holtzer, Verghese, Wang, Hall, and Lipton (2008), who found that the risk of dementia increased as a function of higher within-person between test variability, even after taking into account neuropsychological test performance. However, whereas we used three attention tasks with differential task demands in the current study, Holtzer et al used three tests that represented different cognitive domains, including verbal intelligence (WAIS–R vocabulary subtest; Wechsler, 1981), attention control/executive function (WAIS–R digit symbol test; Wechsler, 1981), and memory (free and cued selective reminding test)…”