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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Application of Granger Causality Analysis of the Directed Functional Connection in Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment
Published on: August 7, 2017
Annualized functional change in Alzheimer's disease participants and normal controls
Myron Weiner1, Julie Fields, Linda Hynan
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75390-9129, USA. myron.weiner@utsouthwestern.edu
Abstract:
The rate of functional change in persons with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) was compared to that of cognitively normal elderly control subjects. A comparison of annualized rates of change on the Test of Everyday Functional Abilities (TEFA) was carried out, along with a brief measure of instrumental activities of daily living skills, in persons with mild AD (Mini-Mental State Exam score >20) and cognitively normal elderly controls. Persons with AD (N = 30) showed an 8.5 % (3.5 point) annualized decline in TEFA scores over an average of 1.2 years; there was no decline in a group of elderly normal controls (N = 20) over an average of 1.5 years. Persons with mild AD showed functional changes over the course of a year on a direct measure of instrumental activities of daily living; a comparable group of normally aging persons did not.
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