Computerized cognitive testing to capture cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease: Longitudinal findings from the ARMADA study

Roos J Jutten, Emily H Ho, Tatiana Karpouzian-Rogers, Carol van Hulle, Cynthia Carlsson, Hiroko H Dodge, Cindy J Nowinski, Richard Gershon, Sandra Weintraub, Dorene M Rentz

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Timely detection and tracking of Alzheimer's disease (AD) -related cognitive decline has become a public health priority. We investigated whether the NIH Toolbox for Assessment of Neurological and Behavioral Function-Cognition Battery (NIHTB-CB) detects AD-related cognitive decline.

METHODS: N = 171 participants (age 76.5 ± 8; 53% female, 34% Aβ-positive) from the ARMADA study completed the NIHTB-CB at baseline, 12 months, and 24 months. Linear mixed-effect models correcting for demographics were used to examine cross-sectional and longitudinal NIHTB-CB scores in individuals across the clinical AD spectrum.

RESULTS: Compared to Aβ-negative healthy controls, Aβ-positive individuals with amnestic MCI or mild AD performed worse on all NIHTB-CB measures and showed an accelerated decline in processing speed, working memory, and auditory word comprehension tests.

DISCUSSION: These findings support the use of the NIHTB-CB in early AD, but also imply that the optimal NIHTB-CB composite score to detect change over time may differ across clinical stages of AD. Future directions include replication of these findings in larger and more demographically diverse samples.

HIGHLIGHTS: We examined NIH Toolbox-Cognition Battery scores across the clinical AD spectrum.All NIH Toolbox tests detected cross-sectional cognitive impairment in MCI-to-mild AD.Three NIH Toolbox tests captured further decline over time in MCI-to-mild AD.The NIH Toolbox can facilitate timely detection of AD-related cognitive decline.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere70046
Pages (from-to)e70046
JournalAlzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring
Volume17
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2025

Bibliographical note

© 2025 The Author(s). Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Alzheimer's Association.

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