Semantic Network Function Captured by Word Frequency in Nondemented APOE ε4 Carriers

Overview

Journal Neuropsychology

Publisher American Psychological Association

Specialty Neurology

Date 2018 Nov 30

PMID 30489116

Citations 21

Authors

Jet M J Vonk

Roxanna J Flores

Dayanara Rosado

Carolyn Qian

Raquel Cabo

Josina Habegger

Karmen Louie

Elizabeth Allocco

Adam M Brickman

Jennifer J Manly

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: Accurate identification of the earliest cognitive changes associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critically needed. Item-level information within tests of category fluency, such as lexical frequency, harbors valuable information about the integrity of semantic networks affected early in AD. To determine the potential of lexical frequency as a cognitive marker of AD risk, we investigated whether lexical frequency of animal fluency output differentiated ε4 carriers from noncarriers in a cross-sectional design among older African-American adults without dementia.

Method: We analyzed animal fluency performance using mean number of items and mean lexical frequency among 230 cognitively normal African Americans with and without the ε4 allele.

Results: Lexical frequency was higher in ε4 carriers than noncarriers when analyzed as a mean score and within time bins. In contrast, we found no group difference in the number of items produced. Lexical frequency was particularly sensitive to ε4 status after the first 10 s of the 60-s animal fluency task.

Conclusion: Our results suggest that psycholinguistic features may hold value as a cognitive biomarker for identifying people at high risk of AD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Citing Articles

Item-Level Analysis of Category Fluency Test Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Studies of Normal and Neurologically Abnormal Ageing.

De Marco M, Wright L, Makovac E Neuropsychol Rev. 2025; .

PMID: 39841364 DOI: 10.1007/s11065-024-09657-z.

The association of sociodemographic factors with total and item-level semantic fluency metrics.

Beran M, Twait E, Smit A, Posthuma M, van Dijk D, Rabanal K Neuropsychology. 2024; 38(7):665-678.

PMID: 39207440 PMC: 11841925. DOI: 10.1037/neu0000955.

Multivariate word properties in fluency tasks reveal markers of Alzheimer's dementia.

Ferrante F, Migeot J, Birba A, Amoruso L, Perez G, Hesse E Alzheimers Dement. 2023; 20(2):925-940.

PMID: 37823470 PMC: 10916979. DOI: 10.1002/alz.13472.

Bear in mind: the role of personal background in semantic animal fluency - The SMART-MR study.

Smit A, Beran M, Twait E, Geerlings M, Vonk J Front Psychol. 2023; 14:1227053.

PMID: 37809288 PMC: 10556661. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1227053.

Objective and Subjective Clustering Methods for Verb Fluency Responses From Individuals With Alzheimer's Dementia and Cognitively Healthy Older Adults.

Fisher M, Casenhiser D, Paek E Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2023; 32(5S):2589-2601.

PMID: 37722380 PMC: 10721246. DOI: 10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00290.

References

Price S, Kinsella G, Ong B, Storey E, Mullaly E, Phillips M . Semantic verbal fluency strategies in amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychology. 2012; 26(4):490-7. DOI: 10.1037/a0028567. View

Tang M, Stern Y, Marder K, Bell K, Gurland B, Lantigua R . The APOE-epsilon4 allele and the risk of Alzheimer disease among African Americans, whites, and Hispanics. JAMA. 1998; 279(10):751-5. DOI: 10.1001/jama.279.10.751. View

Bondi M, Salmon D, Monsch A, Galasko D, Butters N, Klauber M . Episodic memory changes are associated with the APOE-epsilon 4 allele in nondemented older adults. Neurology. 1995; 45(12):2203-6. DOI: 10.1212/wnl.45.12.2203. View

Corder E, Saunders A, Strittmatter W, Schmechel D, Gaskell P, Small G . Gene dose of apolipoprotein E type 4 allele and the risk of Alzheimer's disease in late onset families. Science. 1993; 261(5123):921-3. DOI: 10.1126/science.8346443. View

Murphy K, Rich J, Troyer A . Verbal fluency patterns in amnestic mild cognitive impairment are characteristic of Alzheimer's type dementia. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2006; 12(4):570-4. DOI: 10.1017/s1355617706060590. View

Honig L, Schupf N, Lee J, Tang M, Mayeux R . Shorter telomeres are associated with mortality in those with APOE epsilon4 and dementia. Ann Neurol. 2006; 60(2):181-7. DOI: 10.1002/ana.20894. View

Logue M, Schu M, Vardarajan B, Buros J, Green R, Go R . A comprehensive genetic association study of Alzheimer disease in African Americans. Arch Neurol. 2011; 68(12):1569-79. PMC: 3356921. DOI: 10.1001/archneurol.2011.646. View

Tang M, Maestre G, Tsai W, Liu X, Feng L, Chung W . Relative risk of Alzheimer disease and age-at-onset distributions, based on APOE genotypes among elderly African Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics in New York City. Am J Hum Genet. 1996; 58(3):574-84. PMC: 1914582. View

Butters N, Granholm E, Salmon D, Grant I, Wolfe J . Episodic and semantic memory: a comparison of amnesic and demented patients. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 1987; 9(5):479-97. DOI: 10.1080/01688638708410764. View

10.

Sperling R, Aisen P, Beckett L, Bennett D, Craft S, Fagan A . Toward defining the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2011; 7(3):280-92. PMC: 3220946. DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.03.003. View

11.

Hixson J, Vernier D . Restriction isotyping of human apolipoprotein E by gene amplification and cleavage with HhaI. J Lipid Res. 1990; 31(3):545-8. View

12.

Backman L, Jones S, Berger A, Jonsson Laukka E, Small B . Cognitive impairment in preclinical Alzheimer's disease: a meta-analysis. Neuropsychology. 2005; 19(4):520-31. DOI: 10.1037/0894-4105.19.4.520. View

13.

Amieva H, Le Goff M, Millet X, Orgogozo J, Peres K, Barberger-Gateau P . Prodromal Alzheimer's disease: successive emergence of the clinical symptoms. Ann Neurol. 2008; 64(5):492-8. DOI: 10.1002/ana.21509. View

14.

Brysbaert M, New B . Moving beyond Kucera and Francis: a critical evaluation of current word frequency norms and the introduction of a new and improved word frequency measure for American English. Behav Res Methods. 2009; 41(4):977-90. DOI: 10.3758/BRM.41.4.977. View

15.

Dudas R, Clague F, Thompson S, Graham K, Hodges J . Episodic and semantic memory in mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychologia. 2005; 43(9):1266-76. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.12.005. View

16.

Manly J, Jacobs D, Sano M, Bell K, Merchant C, Small S . Cognitive test performance among nondemented elderly African Americans and whites. Neurology. 1998; 50(5):1238-45. DOI: 10.1212/wnl.50.5.1238. View

17.

Kremin H, Perrier D, de Wilde M, DORDAIN M, Le Bayon A, Gatignol P . Factors predicting success in picture naming in Alzheimer's disease and primary progressive aphasia. Brain Cogn. 2001; 46(1-2):180-3. DOI: 10.1006/brcg.2000.1270. View

18.

Johnson-Selfridge M, Zalewski C, Aboudarham J . The relationship between ethnicity and word fluency. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2003; 13(3):319-25. View

19.

Farrer L, Cupples L, Haines J, Hyman B, Kukull W, Mayeux R . Effects of age, sex, and ethnicity on the association between apolipoprotein E genotype and Alzheimer disease. A meta-analysis. APOE and Alzheimer Disease Meta Analysis Consortium. JAMA. 1997; 278(16):1349-56. View

20.

Albert M, DeKosky S, Dickson D, Dubois B, Feldman H, Fox N . The diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2011; 7(3):270-9. PMC: 3312027. DOI: 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.03.008. View