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. 2021 May 28:13:666181.
doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.666181. eCollection 2021.

Positive Effect of Cognitive Reserve on Episodic Memory, Executive and Attentional Functions Taking Into Account Amyloid-Beta, Tau, and Apolipoprotein E Status

Justinas Narbutas  1   2 , Daphne Chylinski  1 , Maxime Van Egroo  1 , Mohamed Ali Bahri  1 , Ekaterina Koshmanova  1 , Gabriel Besson  1 , Vincenzo Muto  1 , Christina Schmidt  1   2 , André Luxen  1 , Evelyne Balteau  1 , Christophe Phillips  1 , Pierre Maquet  1   3 , Eric Salmon  1   2   3 , Gilles Vandewalle  1 , Christine Bastin  1   2 , Fabienne Collette  1   2
Affiliations

Positive Effect of Cognitive Reserve on Episodic Memory, Executive and Attentional Functions Taking Into Account Amyloid-Beta, Tau, and Apolipoprotein E Status

Justinas Narbutas et al. Front Aging Neurosci. .

Abstract

Studies exploring the simultaneous influence of several physiological and environmental factors on domain-specific cognition in late middle-age remain scarce. Therefore, our objective was to determine the respective contribution of modifiable risk/protective factors (cognitive reserve and allostatic load) on specific cognitive domains (episodic memory, executive functions, and attention), taking into account non-modifiable factors [sex, age, and genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD)] and AD-related biomarker amount (amyloid-beta and tau/neuroinflammation) in a healthy late-middle-aged population. One hundred and one healthy participants (59.4 ± 5 years; 68 women) were evaluated for episodic memory, executive and attentional functioning via neuropsychological test battery. Cognitive reserve was determined by the National Adult Reading Test. The allostatic load consisted of measures of lipid metabolism and sympathetic nervous system functioning. The amyloid-beta level was assessed using positron emission tomography in all participants, whereas tau/neuroinflammation positron emission tomography scans and apolipoprotein E genotype were available for 58 participants. Higher cognitive reserve was the main correlate of better cognitive performance across all domains. Moreover, age was negatively associated with attentional functioning, whereas sex was a significant predictor for episodic memory, with women having better performance than men. Finally, our results did not show clear significant associations between performance over any cognitive domain and apolipoprotein E genotype and AD biomarkers. This suggests that domain-specific cognition in late healthy midlife is mainly determined by a combination of modifiable (cognitive reserve) and non-modifiable factors (sex and age) rather than by AD biomarkers and genetic risk for AD.

Keywords: AD biomarkers; APOE; allostatic load; cognitive performance; cognitive reserve; midlife.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Parametric [18F]Flutemetamol and [18F]THK5351 uptake. (Top) panel represents parametric [18F]Flutemetamol binding estimation for subject having lowest Centiloid value (–8.67 CL) and for subject having highest Centiloid value (17.79 CL) over a mask covering mostly neocortical regions. (Bottom) panel represents parametric [18F]THK5351 binding estimation for subject having lowest SUVR value (1.83 SUVR) and for subject having highest SUVR value (2.77 SUVR) over a mask covering entorhinal cortex and hippocampus.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
(A) Scatter plot displaying association between episodic memory and fNART (N = 101). Regression was used for visual display only and not as a substitute for full GLMM statistics. (B) Box plot visualizing episodic memory score according to sex (N = 101).
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
(A) Scatter plot displaying association between executive functioning and fNART (N = 101). (B) Scatter plot displaying association between executive functioning and tau level in Braak regions 1 and 2 (N = 58). Regressions were used for visual display only and not as a substitute for full GLMM statistics.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Scatter plots visualizing association between attentional functioning, fNART (A), and age (B) (N = 101). Regressions were used for visual display only and not as a substitute for full GLMM statistics.
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