Citations

This study attempted to relate scores on the counseling readiness scale of the Adjective Checklist to changes in perception of spouse during intensive group psychotherapy. The counseling readiness score was found to be unrelated to changes in the number of favorable adjectives used by S to describe the spouse or used by the spouse to describe S. A significant relationship was found between the counseling readiness score and changes in the number of unfavorable adjectives used to describe the spouse and used by the spouse to describe S. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed.

Performances on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the WAIS-Revised (WAIS-R) were compared between groups at different ages. We studied 176 subjects (primarily outpatients) who were referred for assessment of cognitive function. Although all age groups tended to obtain lower scores on the WAIS-R, older subjects were penalized more on Performance and Full Scale IQs when the revised form was used. However, interactions suggest that differences in the scores on the WAIS and WAIS-R in a clinical population may reflect an interaction among age, presenting complaint, and other factors.

Human memory is a polygenic trait. We performed a genome-wide screen to identify memory-related gene variants. A genomic locus encoding the brain protein KIBRA was significantly associated with memory performance in three independent, cognitively normal cohorts from Switzerland and the United States. Gene expression studies showed that KIBRA was expressed in memory-related brain structures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging detected KIBRA allele–dependent differences in hippocampal activations during memory retrieval. Evidence from these experiments suggests a role for KIBRA in human memory.

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have abnormally low positron emission tomography (PET) measurements of the cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (CMRgl) in regions of the precuneus and the posterior cingulate, parietotemporal, and frontal cortex. Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 gene dose (i.e., the number of ε4 alleles in a person's APOE genotype) is associated with a higher risk of AD and a younger age at dementia onset. We previously found that cognitively normal late-middle-aged APOE ε4 carriers have abnormally low CMRgl in the same brain regions as patients with probable Alzheimer's dementia. In a PET study of 160 cognitively normal subjects 47–68 years of age, including 36 ε4 homozygotes, 46 heterozygotes, and 78 ε4 noncarriers who were individually matched for their gender, age, and educational level, we now find that ε4 gene dose is correlated with lower CMRgl in each of these brain regions. This study raises the possibility of using PET as a quantitative presymptomatic endophenotype to help evaluate the individual and aggregate effects of putative genetic and nongenetic modifiers of AD risk.