Identifying Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease Using Everyday Driving Behavior: Proof of Concept

J Alzheimers Dis. 2021;79(3):1009-1014. doi: 10.3233/JAD-201294.

Abstract

We examined whether driving behavior can predict preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). Data from 131 cognitively normal older adults with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and/or positron emission tomography (PET) biomarkers were examined with naturalistic driving behavior. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used to predict the highest 10%, 25%, and 50% of values for CSF tau/Aβ42, ptau181/Aβ42, or amyloid PET. Six in vivo driving variables alone yielded area under the curves (AUC) from 0.64-0.82. Addition of age, Apolipoprotein ɛ4, and neuropsychological measures to the models improved the AUC (0.81 to 0.90). Driving can be used as novel neurobehavioral marker to identify presence of preclinical AD.

Keywords: Aging drivers; Alzheimer’s disease; biomarkers; driving decline; preclinical.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis*
  • Alzheimer Disease / psychology
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Asymptomatic Diseases / psychology
  • Automobile Driving / psychology*
  • Biomarkers / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Mental Status and Dementia Tests
  • Neuroimaging
  • Peptide Fragments / cerebrospinal fluid
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Proof of Concept Study
  • tau Proteins / cerebrospinal fluid

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Biomarkers
  • Peptide Fragments
  • amyloid beta-protein (1-42)
  • tau Proteins