Spatial cognition is associated with levels of phosphorylated-tau and β-amyloid in clinically normal older adults

• Published in: Neurobiology of aging 2023-10, Vol.130, p.124-134
• Main Authors: Coughlan, Gillian, DeSouza, Brennan, Zhukovsky, Peter, Hornberger, Michael, Grady, Cheryl, Buckley, Rachel F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Alzheimer Disease - cerebrospinal fluid; Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; Amyloid beta; Amyloid beta-Peptides - cerebrospinal fluid; Biomarkers - cerebrospinal fluid; Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF); Cognition; Cross-Sectional Studies; Digital technology; Humans; Preclinical Alzheimer's disease; Spatial cognition; Tau; tau Proteins - cerebrospinal fluid
• ISSN: 0197-4580; 1558-1497
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.06.016

Spatial cognition is associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers in the symptomatic stages of the disease. We investigated whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers (phosphorylated-tau [p-tau] and β-amyloid) are associated with poorer spatial cognition in clinically normal older adults. Participants were 1875 clinically normal adults (age 67.8 [8.5] years) from the European Prevention of Alzheimer's Dementia Consortium. Mixed effect linear models assessed the cross-sectional association between p-tau181, β-amyloid1–42 (Aβ1–42) and p-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio and spatial cognition measured using semi-automated Supermarket Task and the 4 Mountains Task. Levels of p-tau181, Aβ1–42, and p-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio were significantly associated with spatial cognition scores on both tasks. The p-tau181/Aβ1–42 ratio showed the largest effect sizes (β = −0.04/0.05, p