Abstract
To determine whether performance on the Latin American Spanish version of the Face-Name Associative Memory Exam (LAS-FNAME) can differentiate between cognitively intact carriers of an autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease mutation (E280A) in Presenilin-1, who are destined to develop early-onset dementia, from matched non-carriers. We also sought to examine whether LAS-FNAME performance is associated with amyloid-β and regional tau burden in mutation carriers.
35 cognitively intact mutation carriers (age range 26–41), 48 matched non-carriers (aged 27 to 44), and 19 symptomatic carriers (13 with subjective cognitive concerns, 6 with mild cognitive impairment [MCI]) completed the LAS-FNAME. A subset of participants (31 carriers [12 symptomatic] and 35 non-carriers) traveled from Colombia to Boston to undergo positron emission tomography (PET) using Pittsburgh compound B to measure mean cortical amyloid-β and Flortaucipir for regional tau tangles. ANOVA analyses and Spearman correlations were used to examine group differences and relationships among LAS-FNAME performance, Aβ and tau accumulation.
Compared to non-carriers, cognitively intact carriers had lower scores on the LAS-FNAME total scores (p = .040). Across all carriers (including symptomatic carriers), higher levels of amyloid-β (r = −.436, p = .018) and regional tau in the entorhinal (r = −.394, p = .031) and inferior temporal cortex (r = −.563, p = .001) were associated with lower LAS-FNAME total scores (see Figure).
Performance on the LAS-FNAME differentiated between cognitively intact mutation carriers from non-carriers, and was associated with greater amyloid and tau burden when examining all carriers. Findings suggest that the LAS-FNAME is sensitive to early clinical and pathological changes and can potentially help track disease progression in Spanish-speaking individuals.
