A novel approach to assessing memory at the population level: vulnerability to semantic interference.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive neuroscience
• Neurology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Growing interest in early dementia detection methods.
• Semantic Interference Test (SIT) shows promise in clinical settings for Alzheimer's disease (AD).
• Generalizability of SIT to community settings requires investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the validity of the SIT in a community-dwelling population.
• To determine if SIT performance correlates with early signs of dementia.

Main Methods:

• Administered SIT to participants aged 65+ from the Monongahela-Youghiogheny Healthy Aging Team (MYHAT).
• Assessed concurrent validity by correlating SIT performance with Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scores (0 vs. 0.5) using logistic regression.
• Excluded individuals with CDR >= 1 (dementia).

Main Results:

• Poorer performance on most SIT variables was associated with possible dementia (CDR 0.5) (ORs 2.24-4.79).
• Younger age and female gender were associated with better SIT performance.
• Education and reading ability showed weak associations with SIT performance.

Conclusions:

• SIT demonstrates potential as a valid tool for identifying preclinical dementia in community settings.
• SIT may be useful for assessing individuals with low literacy or education.
• Normative SIT data stratified by age are provided for future research and clinical use.