The recency ratio assessed by story recall is associated with cerebrospinal fluid levels of neurodegeneration biomarkers

Davide Bruno; Ainara Jauregi Zinkunegi; Gwendlyn Kollmorgen; Ivonne Suridjan; Norbert Wild; Cynthia Carlsson; Barbara Bendlin; Ozioma Okonkwo; Nathaniel Chin; Bruce P Hermann; Sanjay Asthana; Henrik Zetterberg; Kaj Blennow; Rebecca Langhough; Sterling C Johnson; Kimberly D Mueller

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.004

The recency ratio assessed by story recall is associated with cerebrospinal fluid levels of neurodegeneration biomarkers

Cortex. 2023 Feb:159:167-174. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.12.004. Epub 2022 Dec 23.

Authors

Davide Bruno¹, Ainara Jauregi Zinkunegi², Gwendlyn Kollmorgen³, Ivonne Suridjan⁴, Norbert Wild³, Cynthia Carlsson⁵, Barbara Bendlin⁶, Ozioma Okonkwo⁶, Nathaniel Chin⁷, Bruce P Hermann⁸, Sanjay Asthana⁷, Henrik Zetterberg⁹, Kaj Blennow¹⁰, Rebecca Langhough¹¹, Sterling C Johnson⁵, Kimberly D Mueller¹²

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Electronic address: d.bruno@ljmu.ac.uk.
² School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
³ Roche Diagnostics GmbH, Penzberg, Germany.
⁴ Roche Diagnostics International Ltd, Rotkreuz, Switzerland.
⁵ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, William S. Middleton Veterans Hospital, Madison, WI, USA.
⁶ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁷ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁸ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Neurology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden; Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, UK; UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, London, UK; Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong, China.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden; Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden.
¹¹ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA.
¹² Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA; Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, USA.

Abstract

Recency refers to the information learned at the end of a study list or task. Recency forgetting, as tracked by the ratio between recency recall in immediate and delayed conditions, i.e., the recency ratio (Rr), has been applied to list-learning tasks, demonstrating its efficacy in predicting cognitive decline, conversion to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of neurodegeneration. However, little is known as to whether Rr can be effectively applied to story recall tasks. To address this question, data were extracted from the database of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. A total of 212 participants were included in the study. CSF biomarkers were amyloid-beta (Aβ) 40 and 42, phosphorylated (p) and total (t) tau, neurofilament light (NFL), neurogranin (Ng), and α-synuclein (a-syn). Story Recall was measured with the Logical Memory Test (LMT). We carried out Bayesian regression analyses with Rr, and other LMT scores as predictors; and CSF biomarkers (including the Aβ42/40 and p-tau/Aβ42 ratios) as outcomes. Results showed that models including Rr consistently provided best fits with the data, with few exceptions. These findings demonstrate the applicability of Rr to story recall and its sensitivity to CSF biomarkers of neurodegeneration, and encourage its inclusion when evaluating risk of neurodegeneration with story recall.

Keywords: Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers; Dementia; Memory assessment; Serial position effects; Story recall.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / diagnosis
Alzheimer Disease* / psychology
Amyloid beta-Peptides
Bayes Theorem
Biomarkers
Cognitive Dysfunction* / diagnosis
Cognitive Dysfunction* / psychology
Humans
Neurons
tau Proteins

Substances

Amyloid beta-Peptides
Biomarkers
tau Proteins

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding