AMYLOID IMAGING AND COGNITIVE AGING

Dorene M. Rentz, Psy.D
Co-Director, Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment, Harvard Medical School,
Senior Neuropsychologist, Division of Cognitive and Behavior Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital,
Neuropsychologist, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Assistant Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

Amyloid-beta deposition is a central pathophysiological marker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) but at autopsy, a substantial number of older, cognitively intact individuals harbor extensive A-beta pathology raising questions about it’s relationship to disease progression.  Recent imaging methods have been developed to permit direct detection of the fibrillar form of A-beta pathology in vivo, using positron emission tomography (PET). These recent advances in amyloid imaging now give us the unique opportunity to explore the correlates of successful cognitive aging as well as the earliest clinical symptoms that are associated with the neuropathological process of AD. This review will address the clinical relevance of A-beta burden in cognitive aging, the specific factors, such as cognitive reserve that may mitigate the clinical expression of amyloid pathology and the issues and challenges raised regarding early detection and treatment intervention. Specific learning goals are: (1) review the current literature of amyloid imaging and to elucidate the relationship of amyloid burden to neuropsychological performance, and (2) to discuss the clinical relevance, issues and challenges of amyloid imaging in the field of cognitive aging and clinical trials of early Alzheimer’s disease.