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Buckley, Rachel

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Buckley

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Buckley, Rachel
Author's Publications: search.filters.isAuthorOfPublication.22996cbd-ea75-4c6c-94ac-a9593d549eb5

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    The relationship between recall of recently versus remotely encoded famous faces and amyloidosis in clinically normal older adults
    (Elsevier, 2017) Orlovsky, Irina; Huijbers, Willem; Hanseeuw, Bernard; Mormino, Elizabeth C.; Hedden, Trey; Buckley, Rachel; LaPoint, Molly; Rabin, Jennifer; Rentz, Dorene; Johnson, Keith; Sperling, Reisa; Papp, Kathryn
    Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients exhibit temporally graded memory loss with remote memories remaining more intact than recent memories. It is unclear whether this temporal pattern is observable in clinically normal adults with amyloid pathology (i.e. preclinical AD). Methods: Participants were asked to recall the names of famous figures most prominent recently (famous after 1990) and remotely (famous from 1960–1980) and were provided with a phonemic cue to ensure that memory failure was not purely due to verbal retrieval weaknesses. In addition, participants identified line drawings of objects. Clinically normal older adults (n = 125) were identified as amyloid β positive or negative (Aβ+/−) using Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography. The relationship between Aβ+/− and recall of remote and recent famous face-names and objects was examined using repeated measures analyses and general linear models controlling for demographics and media usage. Results: When provided with a phonemic cue, Aβ+ participants recalled the names of fewer recent famous faces compared with Aβ− participants. However, recall of remote famous face-names and objects did not differ by Aβ group. Discussion Relative sparing of remotely learned information compared with recently learned information is (1) detectable in the preclinical stages of AD and (2) related to amyloid pathology. Both this temporal gradient and assessment of person-centered rather than object-centered semantic information may be particularly meaningful for tracking early memory changes in the AD trajectory.
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    Assessing Error Awareness as a Mediator of the Relationship between Subjective Concerns and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults
    (Public Library of Science, 2016) Buckley, Rachel; Laming, Gemma; Chen, Li Peng Evelyn; Crole, Alice; Hester, Robert
    Objectives: Subjective concerns of cognitive decline (SCD) often manifest in older adults who exhibit objectively normal cognitive functioning. This subjective-objective discrepancy is counter-intuitive when mounting evidence suggests that subjective concerns relate to future clinical progression to Alzheimer’s disease, and so possess the potential to be a sensitive early behavioural marker of disease. In the current study, we aimed to determine whether individual variability in conscious awareness of errors in daily life might mediate this subjective-objective relationship. Methods: 67 cognitively-normal older adults underwent cognitive, SCD and mood tests, and an error awareness task. Results: Poorer error awareness was not found to mediate a relationship between SCD and objective performance. Furthermore, non-clinical levels of depressive symptomatology were a primary driving factor of SCD and error awareness, and significantly mediated a relationship between the two. Discussion We were unable to show that poorer error awareness mediates SCD and cognitive performance in older adults. Our study does suggest, however, that underlying depressive symptoms influence both poorer error awareness and greater SCD severity. Error awareness is thus not recommended as a proxy for SCD, as reduced levels of error awareness do not seem to be reflected by greater SCD.
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    A ‘Disease Severity Index’ to identify individuals with Subjective Memory Decline who will progress to mild cognitive impairment or dementia
    (Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Ferreira, Daniel; Falahati, Farshad; Linden, Cecilia; Buckley, Rachel; Ellis, Kathryn A.; Savage, Greg; Villemagne, Victor L.; Rowe, Christopher C.; Ames, David; Simmons, Andrew; Westman, Eric
    Subjective memory decline (SMD) is a heterogeneous condition. While SMD might be the earliest sign of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), it also occurs in aging and various neurological, medical, and psychiatric conditions. Identifying those with higher risk to develop dementia is thus a major challenge. We tested a novel disease severity index generated by multivariate data analysis with numerous structural MRI measures as input. The index was used to identify SMD individuals with high risk of progression to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or AD. A total of 69 healthy controls, 86 SMD, 45 MCI, and 38 AD patients were included. Subjects were followed up for 7.5 years. Clinical, cognitive, PET amyloid imaging and APOE ε4 data were used as outcome variables. The results showed that SMD evidenced cognitive performance intermediate between healthy controls and MCI. The disease severity index identified eleven (13%) SMD individuals with an AD-like pattern of brain atrophy. These individuals showed lower cognitive performance, increased CDR-SOB, higher amyloid burden and worse clinical progression (6.2 times higher likelihood to develop MCI, dementia or die than healthy controls). The current disease severity index may have relevance for clinical practice, as well as for selecting appropriate individuals for clinical trials.