"Not all Bad? APOE4 Sharpens Memory in Older People"

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Fc1345linville
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"Not all Bad? APOE4 Sharpens Memory in Older People"

Post by Fc1345linville »

Here's the article in Alzforum. This sure seems counter intuitive. Maybe not?

Fc

https://www.alzforum.org/news/research- ... der-people
NF52
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Re: "Not all Bad? APOE4 Sharpens Memory in Older People"

Post by NF52 »

Fc1345linville wrote:Here's the article in Alzforum. This sure seems counter intuitive. Maybe not?

Fc

https://www.alzforum.org/news/research- ... der-people
I think it falls under the banner of "Don't count us out yet!"
Kirsty Lu and colleagues correlated APOE genotype, amyloid PET, structural MRI, and cognitive test data from a subset of the British 1946 Birth Cohort. These volunteers were all born during the same week after World War II and researchers have been following them ever since. Of the 398 cognitively normal participants selected for the present analysis, 30 percent carried an APOE4 allele. One-third of them also had brain amyloid, compared to just 10 percent of noncarriers.

The researchers gauged visual working memory by asking participants to recall an object they had seen on a computer a few seconds earlier, and to remember where it had been on the screen...When push came to shove, E4 prevailed. Among amyloid-positives, APOE carriers still recalled an object’s location more precisely than their non-E4 counterparts... “This study suggests E4-associated compensation may extend into older adulthood and, in high-functioning individuals, could offset the negative impact of low-level Aβ deposits,” wrote Rusted.
Anyone who wants to test their own short-term visual memory on a validated test, can sign up for the APT Webstudy here: https://www.aptwebstudy.org/en/welcome
The APT Webstudy is being conducted by the University of Southern California’s Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (USC ATRI) and is funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The Webstudy does not require participants to take medication and is not a clinical trial itself; it’s what we call an “observational” study, meaning we look at (or observe) changes over time in measures of memory function.
https://www.aptwebstudy.org/en/faq

It involves about 10-15 minutes every three months and can be done on a tablet or laptop/computer. I've taken the tests 4 times over 12 months. Should have watched the FAQ 6.1 tutorial that explain how the test works) APT Webstudy Tutorials: Moving through the assessments], but now have some data that my short-term memory is at or above the normal level for someone my age. [ A score of "0" is normal based on your specific age; anything between +10 and -10 is within the normal range, so slight variations between test scores or between dates doesn't signify a problem!]

Let's hear it for ApoE4s who don't believe predictions of our imminent demise!
4/4 and still an optimist!
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