Short-Term Practice Effects and Amyloid Deposition: Providing Information Above and Beyond Baseline Cognition

Practice effects, which are improvements in cognitive test scores due to repeated exposure to testing materials, may provide information about Alzheimer's disease pathology, which could be useful for clinical trials enrichment.

The current study sought to add to the limited literature on short-term practice effects on cognitive tests and their relationship to amyloid deposition on neuroimaging.

Twenty-seven, non-demented older adults (9 cognitively intact, 18 with mild cognitive impairment) received amyloid imaging with 18F-Flutemetamol, and two cognitive testing sessions across one week to determine practice effects.

A composite measure of 18F-Flutemetamol uptake correlated significantly with all seven cognitive tests scores on the baseline battery (r's = -0.61 - 0.59, all p's<0.05), with higher uptake indicating poorer cognition. Practice effects significantly added to the relationship (above and beyond the baseline associations) with 18F-Flutemetamol uptake on 4 of the 7 cognitive test scores (partial r's = -0.45 - 0.44, p's<0.05), with higher uptake indicating poorer practice effects. The odds ratio of being "amyloid positive" was 13.5 times higher in individuals with low practice effects compared to high practice effects.

Short-term practice effects over one week may be predictive of progressive dementia and serve as an affordable screening tool to enrich samples for preventative clinical trials in Alzheimer's disease.