Heritability for dysexecutive function 

 
   Lead Investigator:    Jesse Mez
   Institution      :    Boston University
   E-Mail           :    jessemez@bu.edu
   Proposal ID      :    410


   Publications:


1  Mez J, Mukherjee S, Thornton T, Fardo DW, Trittschuh E, Sutti S, Sherva R, Kauwe JS, Naj AC, Beecham GW, Gross A, Saykin AJ, Green RC, Crane PK,  ADGC Collaborators
   The executive prominent/memory prominent spectrum in Alzheimer's disease is highly heritable
   Journal Article  Neurobiol Aging,41:115-121,2016,PMC4843522

   PUBLISHED





   Proposal Description:
   While the ???classic??? presentation of Late Onset Alzheimer???s disease  (LOAD) displays predominant episodic memory deficits, ???atypical???  presentations are increasingly recognized. These atypical presentations  include logopenic primary progressive aphasia, posterior cortical  atrophy/visual variant, and a dysexecutive variant.In actuality,  patients with LOAD fall along a spectrum from isolated focal syndromes  to mixed syndromes with deficits in multiple cognitive domains.  Executive dysfunction refers to deficits in ???planning, judgment,  reasoning, problem solving, organization, attention, abstraction and  mental flexibility???.Patients with the dysexecutive variant of LOAD have  unique pathological, imaging, and clinical characteristics compared with  patients with typical LOAD. A considerable number of genetic risk  factors have been identified for the incidence of LOAD. However, far  fewer genetic risk factors have been identified for the variation in  clinical presentation of LOAD, including variation in neuropsychological  profile. In this work, we focus on the genetic architecture of the  difference between executive and memory function among patients with  mild LOAD.