A team at the Aging and Memory Research Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, has found that a higher self awareness of memory difficulties may be associated with brain function decline over time, particularly in older adults with a genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease.
The study, one of the first of its kind, offers a greater understanding of how different types and varying degrees of memory complaints may relate to brain function decline.
The discovery could lead to early treatment interventions for people who could develop Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Linda Ercoli, lead study author and assistant clinical professor at UCLA , says the study is one of the first to show an association between memory complaints and underlying brain function decline and although not every complaint will lead to Alzheimer's disease, it is important to listen when patients talk about their memory concerns.
The UCLA team tested thirty right-handed, cognitively intact, middle-aged and older adults (age range, 50-82 years) with age-associated memory complaints, 14 of whom were carriers of the apolipoprotein E-IV allele, a marker for Alzheimer's disease, recruited for the longitudinal study.
None of the participants had other conditions such as depression and anxiety that can also affect memory.
The volunteers were given a questionnaire at the start of the study to gauge the frequency, seriousness and type of memory complaints and the researchers measured brain function at both the beginning and end of the two-year study using positron emission tomography (PET).
PET scans measure brain activity by revealing the amount of glucose metabolized by the brain as fuel.
The researchers then measured how complaints were related to decline in brain activity over two years.