A cognitive stress test for prodromal Alzheimer's disease: Multiethnic generalizability

Culturally fair cognitive assessments sensitive to detecting changes associated with prodromal Alzheimer's disease are needed.

Performance of Hispanic and non-Hispanic older adults on the Loewenstein-Acevedo Scale of Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L) was examined in persons with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) or normal cognition. The association between a novel cognitive marker, the failure to recover from proactive semantic interference (frPSI), and cortical thinning was explored.

English-speaking aMCI participants scored lower than cognitively normal participants on all LASSI-L indices, while Spanish-speaking aMCI participants scored lower in learning, frPSI, and delayed recall. Healthy controls obtained equivalent scores on all indices except retroactive semantic interference. English-speaking and Spanish-speaking aMCI participants had equivalent scores except English speaker's greater vulnerability to frPSI. Across aMCI groups, frPSI was associated with cortical thinning of the entorhinal cortex and precuneus (r = -0.45 to r = 0.52; P < .005).

In diverse populations, LASSI-L performance differentiated patients with aMCI from cognitively normal older adults and was associated with thinning in Alzheimer's disease-prone regions, suggesting its clinical utility.