| 1. |
- Lind, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Reduced functional brain activity response in cognitively intact apolipoprotein E ε4 carriers
- 2006
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Ingår i: Brain. - : Oxford University Press. - 0006-8950 .- 1460-2156. ; 129:5, s. 1240-1248
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The apolipoprotein E epsilon4 (APOE epsilon4) is the main known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Genetic assessments in combination with other diagnostic tools, such as neuroimaging, have the potential to facilitate early diagnosis. In this large-scale functional MRI (fMRI) study, we have contrasted 30 APOE epsilon4 carriers (age range: 49-74 years; 19 females), of which 10 were homozygous for the epsilon4 allele, and 30 non-carriers with regard to brain activity during a semantic categorization task. Test groups were closely matched for sex, age and education. Critically, both groups were cognitively intact and thus symptom-free of Alzheimer's disease. APOE epsilon4 carriers showed reduced task-related responses in the left inferior parietal cortex, and bilaterally in the anterior cingulate region. A dose-related response was observed in the parietal area such that diminution was most pronounced in homozygous compared with heterozygous carriers. In addition, contrasts of processing novel versus familiar items revealed an abnormal response in the right hippocampus in the APOE epsilon4 group, mainly expressed as diminished sensitivity to the relative novelty of stimuli. Collectively, these findings indicate that genetic risk translates into reduced functional brain activity, in regions pertinent to Alzheimer's disease, well before alterations can be detected at the behavioural level.
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| 2. |
- Lind, Johanna, et al.
(författare)
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Reduced hippocampal volume in non-demented carriers fo the apolipoprotein E ε4 : Relation to chronological age and recognition memory
- 2006
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Ingår i: Neuroscience Letters. - : Elsevier BV. - 0304-3940 .- 1872-7972. ; 396:1, s. 23-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Apolipoprotein E ε4 (APOE ε4) is the main known genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Some previous studies have reported structural brain changes as well as cognitive deficits in non-demented APOE ε4 carriers, but the pattern of results is inconsistent and studies with larger sample sizes have been called for. Here we compared hippocampal volume and recognition–memory performance between AD-symptom-free carriers (N = 30) and non-carriers (N = 30) of the APOE ε4 (age range: 49–79 years). We observed reduced right hippocampal volume in APOE ε4 carriers, and found that the difference was most pronounced before the age of 65. Further, the APOE ε4 carriers made significantly more false alarms in the recognition–memory test, and the number of false alarms correlated significantly with right hippocampus volume. These results indicate that relatively young individuals at genetic risk for AD have smaller hippocampal volume and lower performance on hippocampal-dependent cognitive tasks. A question for the future is whether smaller hippocampal volume represents early-onset hippocampal volume reduction or an inherent trait.
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| 3. |
- Maitland, Scott B., et al.
(författare)
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On the structure of personality : Are there separate temperament and character factors?
- 2009
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Ingår i: Personality and Individual Differences. - : Elsevier. - 0191-8869 .- 1873-3549. ; 47:3, s. 180-184
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is a widely used measure of psychobiological aspects of personality. Theoretically, the TCI is defined as comprising four temperament and three character factors. Most previous examinations of the factor structure have used exploratory factor methods with mixed results. We used confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) to examine the TCI in a sample of 2423 adults aged 35–90 years (1093 women, 1330 men) from the Betula study. Support for the seven TCI factors was mixed. Models including second-order factors provided no evidence that the seven first-order TCI factors reflect higher-order temperament and character constructs. Our findings provide no support that individual differences on the seven first-order TCI factors reflect distinct temperament or character dimensions of personality. Whereas more complex modeling strategies rejected separate character and temperament models, the simultaneous (seven-factor) model, and the use of second-order factors; the harm avoidance, self-directedness, and cooperativeness factors were acceptable examined individually. Results for novelty seeking were marginal and self-transcendence, reward dependence and/or persistence factors were not acceptable.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Nilsson, Lars-Göran, et al.
(författare)
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Betula : a prospective cohort study on memory, health and aging
- 2004
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Ingår i: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - Hove : Psychology Press. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 11:2-3, s. 134-148
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article describes the Betula Study with respect to objectives, design, participants, and assessment instruments for health and cognition. Three waves of data collection have been completed in 5-year intervals since 1988-1990. A fourth wave started in 2003 and will be completed in 2005. An overview of Betula research is presented under the headings of memory and cognition and cognitive neuroscience. Health-related issues and sex differences as well as comparisons between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are discussed in the first section. The influence of different genes and of some brain abnormalities for memory functioning in adulthood and old age constitute main topics in the second section. New data are presented on the association between blood pressure and dementia. We demonstrated that a demented group of participants had higher levels of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure than non-dementia controls 10 years before diagnosis. The new fourth wave of data collection will, in addition to enriching the Betula database, permit revisiting and reanalyzing the existing data from new perspectives.
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| 6. |
- Nilsson, Lars-Göran, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of APOE status on episodic and semantic memory : data from a population-based study
- 2006
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Ingår i: Neuropsychology. - Washington : American Psychological Association. - 0894-4105 .- 1931-1559. ; 20:6, s. 645-57
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In a prospective cohort study, the authors demonstrated a more pronounced epsilon4-related deficit for participants 70 years of age and older in tasks assessing episodic recall. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) and age interacted for episodic memory tasks, whereas the interaction for semantic memory tasks was between APOE and test wave. Heterozygotes of epsilon4 between middle-age and young-old participants performed at a higher level than noncarriers of this allele in recall tasks. A dose effect was found such that carriers of 2 epsilon4 alleles failed more profoundly in acquiring and recollecting episodic information than carriers of 1 epsilon4 allele, who in turn failed more than carriers of non-epsilon4 alleles. The pattern of findings observed for older epsilon4 carriers suggests that these individuals have particular difficulty when the executive task demands are high. Several factors (e.g., smaller hippocampal volumes, less effective neural repair mechanisms) may account for these findings. On the basis of the data obtained, the authors argue that analyses of the effect of specific genes in cognition should be accompanied by assessment of performance at a specific level, with due attention to the individual's age.
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