Prospective Memory: Age related change is influenced by APOE genotype

ABSTRACT

Non-focal prospective memory (PM) is sensitive to age-related decline; an additional impairment in focal PM is characteristic of mild stage Alzheimer’s disease. This research explored whether, by mid-adulthood, the distinct demands of focal and non-focal PM expose differences in carriers of an APOE ε4 allele, a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease. Thirty-three young and 55 mid-age adults, differentiated by APOE genotype, completed a category-decision task with a concurrent focal or non-focal PM demand. Only mid-age ε4 carriers showed a cost of carrying a focal PM intention. In addition, mid-age ε4 carriers showed a significantly greater cost of carrying a non-focal PM intention than young ε4 carriers, supporting a profile of accelerated aging. Consistency in the profile of cost differences observed in mid-age ε4 carriers and pathological aging may indicate premature vulnerability. Future research correlating a shift in PM performance with early genotype differences in brain-based markers of decline is important.

KEYWORDS:

• APOE
• prospective memory
• aging
• Alzheimer’s disease
• mid-adulthood

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Genotype analysis unavailable for this participant.

2. Volunteers with ε2/ε4 genotype were retained in the present analysis to improve sample power; an additional analysis removing these two volunteers demonstrated that the outcomes were not significantly different.

3. IQ did not account for significant variance (p > .05) across indices of category decision PM task performance and hence will not be discussed in further detail.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Studentship and the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Studentship.