Julie GonneaudFrench Institute of Health and Medical Research | Inserm
Julie Gonneaud
PhD
About
134
Publications
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Introduction
I did a PhD (sup.: B. Desgranges, University of Caen) on the effect of age on prospective memory, using neuropsychological tests, virtual reality and fMRI. I then joined G. Chetelat's team (Caen) to work on multimodal imaging of Alzheimer's disease (AD), focusing on genetic aspects (APOE4, familial AD). In the meantime, I've been involved at the faculty of Psychology.
In 2016, I joined the Villeneuve Lab (McGill University) to work on multimodal imaging of people with a familial history of AD.
Additional affiliations
September 2016 - present
December 2012 - September 2016
September 2008 - August 2016
Education
September 2008 - December 2012
September 2007 - July 2008
September 2005 - July 2007
Publications
Publications (134)
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly challenged mental health of populations worldwide. We aimed to assess changes in mental health of cognitively unimpaired (CU) older adults with pre-existing subclinical depressive symptoms during pandemic-related confinements, and the factors that could modulate these changes. CU older adults with (DepS, n=53) an...
Aging is associated with cognitive changes, even in the absence of brain pathology. This study aimed to determine if meditation training, by comparison to active and passive control groups, is linked to changes in the perception of cognitive functioning in older adults. One hundred thirty-four healthy older participants from the Age-Well Randomized...
Introduction
Mental health conditions are associated with cognition and physical function in older adults. We examined whether worry and ruminative brooding, key symptoms of certain mental health conditions, are related to subjective and/or objective measures of cognitive and physical (cardiovascular) health.
Methods
We used baseline data from 282...
INTRODUCTION
Older adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline (SCD) have a higher risk of dementia. Reducing this risk through behavioral interventions, which can increase emotional well‐being (mindfulness and compassion) and physical activity, is crucial in SCD.
METHODS
SCD‐Well is a multicenter, observer‐blind, randomized, controlled, supe...
Importance
Lifestyle factors have been associated with dementia risk and neuroimaging markers of ageing and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), but the period at which they have the greatest influence remains unclear.
Objective
To determine the relative influence of lifestyle at different life periods on older adults’ brain health.
Design, Setting, and Par...
Background
Increasing evidence suggests that lifestyle factors are related to cerebral markers of aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in older individuals. However, most studies addressed the association between current lifestyle and neuroimaging, providing little information on the relative effect of lifestyle at different life periods on older adu...
Background
Recent evidence in Alzheimer’s diseases suggests that early dysfunction of emotional processing may precede the onset of cognitive decline and dementia. Altered functional brain connectivity patterns also occur along with other brain changes many years before clinical AD symptoms.
Method
We combined baseline multimodal neuroimaging data...
Background
Non‐pharmacological interventions are a potential strategy to maintain or promote cognitive functioning in older adults. We investigated the effects of 18‐months meditation or non‐native language training versus no intervention on cognition in older adults.
Method
Age‐Well was an observer‐blind, randomised, controlled clinical trial wit...
Background
Increasing evidence suggests that lifestyle factors are related to cerebral markers of aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in older individuals. However, most studies addressed the association between current lifestyle and neuroimaging, providing little information on the relative effect of lifestyle at different life periods on older adu...
Objectives
Older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) recruited from memory clinics have an increased risk of developing dementia and regularly experience reduced psychological well-being related to memory concerns and fear of dementia. Research on improving well-being in SCD is limited and lacks non-pharmacological approaches. We investi...
Objectives
As the world population is ageing, it is vital to understand how older adults can maintain and deepen their psychological well-being as they are confronted with the unique challenges of ageing in a complex world. Theoretical work has highlighted the promising role of intentional mental training such as meditation practice for enhancing h...
White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are radiological abnormalities reflecting cerebrovascular dysfunction detectable using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). WMHs are often present in individuals at the later stages of the lifespan and in prodromal stages in the Alzheimer’s Disease spectrum. Tissue alterations underlying WMHs may include demyelinat...
Sleep, especially slow wave sleep (SWS), is essential for cognitive functioning and is reduced in aging. The impact of sleep quality on cognition is variable, especially in aging. Cognitive reserve (CR) may be an important modulator of these effects. We aimed at investigating this question to better identify individuals in whom sleep disturbances m...
Epidemiological studies show that modifiable risk factors account for about 40% of the population variability in risk of developing dementia, including sporadic Alzheimer's disease (sAD). Recent findings suggest that these factors might also modify disease trajectories of people with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease (ADAD). With positron emis...
INTRODUCTION: APOE4 genotype and lifestyle have been associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk, but how they interact on neuroimaging and cognitive markers of aging and AD remains unclear.
METHODS: In 135 cognitively unimpaired older adults from the baseline Age-Well trial, we investigated the interaction between APOE4 status and cognitive acti...
Importance:
Nonpharmacological interventions are a potential strategy to maintain or promote cognitive functioning in older adults.
Objective:
To investigate the effects of 18 months' meditation training and 18 months' non-native language training on cognition in older adults.
Design, setting, and participants:
This study was a secondary analy...
Background
APOE4 is the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recent findings suggest that lifestyle factors could modulate the association between APOE4 and cognitive impairment and/or dementia risk. However, a comprehensive assessment of the interactions between lifestyle and APOE4 status on neuroimaging and cognitive markers of...
Background
Allostatic load (AL) is a cumulative measure of dysregulations across multiple physiological systems of the body occurring over time. AL was originally developed to explain how chronic stress damages physiologic systems and accelerates aging. Studies exploring the relationship between AL and brain health in older adults using a multimoda...
Medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions are differentially affected in Alzheimer's disease (AD), with a specific involvement of the entorhinal cortex (ERC), perirhinal cortex and hippocampal cornu ammonis (CA)1. While amyloid (Aβ) and APOEε4 are respectively the first molecular change and the main genetic risk factor in AD, their links with MTL atrop...
Basic emotional functions seem well preserved in older adults. However, their reactivity to and recovery from socially negative events remain poorly characterized. To address this, we designed a ‘task–rest’ paradigm in which 182 participants from two independent experiments underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while exposed to socio-emot...
Allostatic load (AL) is a cumulative measure of dysregulations across multiple physiological systems of the body occurring over time. AL was originally developed to explain how chronic stress damages physiologic systems and accelerates aging. Studies exploring the relationship between AL and brain health in older adults using a multimodal approach...
APOE4 is the main genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Recent findings suggest that lifestyle factors could modulate the association between APOE4 and cognitive impairment and/or dementia risk. However, a comprehensive assessment of the interactions between lifestyle and APOE4 status on neuroimaging and cognitive markers of aging and A...
Objectives: As the world population is ageing, it is vital to understand how older adults can maintain and deepen their psychological well-being as they are confronted with the unique challenges of ageing in a complex and vulnerable world. Theoretical work has highlighted the promising role of intentional mental training such as meditation practice...
Subclinical depressive symptoms are associated with increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but the brain mechanisms underlying this relationship are still unclear. We aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the brain substrates of subclinical depressive symptoms in cognitively unimpaired older adults using complementary multimodal neuroim...
Importance:
No lifestyle-based randomized clinical trial directly targets psychoaffective risk factors of dementia. Meditation practices recently emerged as a promising mental training exercise to foster brain health and reduce dementia risk.
Objective:
To investigate the effects of meditation training on brain integrity in older adults.
Design...
Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) is defined as the ability to remember to perform intended actions at a specific time in the future. TBPM is impaired in aging, and this decline has been associated with white-matter alterations within the superior fronto-occipital fasciculus. In the present study, we used resting-state functional magnetic resona...
Objectives
Older adults with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) recruited from memory clinics have an increased risk of developing dementia and regularly experience reduced psychological well-being related to memory concerns and fear of dementia. Research on improving well-being in SCD is limited and lacks non-pharmacological approaches. We investi...
Background
Older individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) perceive that their cognition has declined but do not show objective impairment on neuropsychological tests. Individuals with SCD are at elevated risk of objective cognitive decline and incident dementia. Non-pharmacological interventions (including mindfulness-based and health se...
Importance:
Preventive trials of anti-amyloid agents might preferably recruit persons showing earliest biologically relevant β-amyloid (Aβ) binding on positron emission tomography (PET).
Objective:
To investigate the timing at which Aβ-PET binding starts showing associations with other markers of Alzheimer disease.
Design, setting, and particip...
Importance:
National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) workgroups have proposed biological research criteria intended to identify individuals with preclinical Alzheimer disease (AD).
Objective:
To assess the clinical value of these biological criteria to identify older individuals without cognitive impairment who are at near-te...
Background and Objectives
Self-reflection (the active evaluation of ones thoughts, feelings and behaviours) can confer protection against adverse health outcomes. Its impact on markers sensitive to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), however, is unknown. The primary objective of this cross-sectional study was to examine the association between self-reflectio...
Vascular risk factors such as hyperglycemia and platelet hyperactivation play a significant role in type 2 diabetes (T2D), a risk factor for AD. We investigated the relationships between glycemia levels, platelet indices (platelet count; mean platelet volume (MPV)) and AD neuroimaging markers in 105 cognitively unimpaired adults, including 21 amylo...
Background:
This study assesses the relationships between dynamic functional network connectivity (DFNC) and dementia risk.
Methods:
DFNC of the default mode (DMN), salience (SN), and executive control networks was assessed in 127 cognitively unimpaired older adults. Stepwise regressions were performed with dementia risk and protective factors a...
Importance
National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association (NIA-AA) workgroups have proposed biological research criteria intended to identify individuals with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
Objective
Assess the clinical value of these biological criteria for prediction of near-term cognitive impairment in cognitively unimpaired older i...
Objective
Physical activity has been associated with a decreased risk for dementia, but the mechanisms underlying this association remain to be determined. Our objective was to assess whether cardiovascular risk factors mediate the association between physical activity and brain integrity markers in older adults.
Methods
Participants from the Age-...
Background:
Poor vascular health may impede brain functioning in older adults, thus possibly increasing the risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The emerging link between vascular risk factors (VRF) and longitudinal decline in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) within functional brain networks needs replication and fur...
Introduction:
Physical inactivity and female sex are independently associated with increased Alzheimer's disease (AD) lifetime risk. This study investigates the possible interactions between sex and physical activity on neuroimaging biomarkers.
Methods:
In 134 cognitively unimpaired older adults (≥65 years, 82 women) from the Age-Well randomized...
Objectives
Deepening our understanding of the mechanisms by which meditation practices impact well-being and human flourishing is essential for advancing the science of meditation. A recent phenomenologically grounded classification system distinguishes attentional, constructive, and deconstructive forms of meditation based on the psychological mec...
Objective:
To evaluate novel plasma p-tau231, p-tau181 as well as Aβ40 and Aβ42 assays as indicators of tau and Aβ pathologies measured with positron emission tomography (PET), and their association with cognitive change, in cognitively unimpaired older adults.
Methods:
In a cohort of 244 older adults at risk of AD owing to a family history of A...
Medial temporal lobe (MTL) sub-structures are differentially affected in early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with a specific involvement of the entorhinal cortex (ERC), the perirhinal cortex (PRC) and CA1. However, the impact of amyloid (Aβ) pathology and APOE ε4 on MTL subregional atrophy remains relatively unknown. Our aim was to uncover these effect...
Resting state functional connectivity (rs-fMRI) is impaired early in persons who subsequently develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. This impairment may be leveraged to aid investigation of the pre-clinical phase of AD. We developed a model that predicts brain age from resting state (rs)-fMRI data, and assessed whether genetic determinants of A...
Background
Medial temporal lobe (MTL) subregions, more specifically the CA1 subfield of the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex (ERC), are particularly affected in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the specific impact of amyloid (Aβ) pathology and APOE ε4 on MTL subregional atrophy remains relatively unknown. Our aim was to uncover these effects...
Background
Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) denotes self‐reported cognitive concerns in the absence of objective cognitive impairment. Individuals with SCD convert to dementia at twice the annual rate of healthy controls, with relatively poorer cognition in SCD conferring additional risk. Non‐pharmacological interventions are currently undergoing...
Background
There is an increasing research focus on type 2 diabetes (T2D) as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Lee, 2018). T2D is a disease characterized notably by hyperglycemia and platelet hyper‐reactivity (Schneider, 2009). However, relatively little is known about subclinical but high levels of glycemia and platelet reactivity in the...
Sleep, especially slow wave sleep (SWS), favors efficient cognitive functioning. This effect may be impaired in aging, but might be modulated by cognitive reserve. Indeed, a study reported that highly educated older adults were able to better tolerate the negative effects of subjective sleep disturbances on verbal fluency scores. Growing evidence a...
Background
Physical inactivity in older adults has been linked to an increased risk of dementia. On the other hand, increasing evidence indicates that sex is likely to influence Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology, leading to a differential susceptibility to the disease in women versus men. We propose to investigate the interplay between sex a...
Background
The COVID‐19 pandemic and the associated distancing measures dramatically affect psychoaffective health, and this is accentuated in older adults who are more vulnerable to the situation. In this study, we are interested in the predictors of emotional resilience in healthy older adults, and also on how the repetition of confinement period...
Background
Self‐reflection is conceptualised as an introspective process that involves active evaluation of one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Engagement in self‐reflection is thought to yield more adaptive stress responses, that in turn result in better short‐term (e.g., reduced inflammatory responses to stressors) and long‐term (e.g., recov...
Background
Physical activity (PA) has been associated with decreased risk of dementia, but the mechanisms underlying this association remain to be determined. One hypothesis is that PA might reduce cardiovascular risk factors (CVRFs), which in turn would benefit brain health. Our objective was to assess the role of CVRFs in the association between...
As the population ages, understanding how to maintain older adults' cognitive abilities is essential. Bilingualism has been linked to higher cognitive reserve, better performance in executive control, changes in brain structure and function relative to monolinguals, and delay in dementia onset. Learning a second language thus seems a promising aven...
Background: The Lifetime of Experiences Questionnaire (LEQ) assesses complex mental activity across the life-course and has been associated with brain and cognitive health. The different education systems and occupation classifications across countries represent a challenge for international comparisons. The objectives of this study were four-fold:...
Alzheimer's disease (AD) represents a major health and societal issue; there is no treatment to date and the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this disease are not well understood. Yet, there is hope that AD risk factors and thus the number of AD cases can be significantly reduced by prevention measures based on lifestyle modifications as ta...
Introduction:
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are often described in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their topography and specific relationships with cognition remain unclear.
Methods:
Regional WMH were estimated in 54 cognitively impaired amyloid beta-positive AD (Aβpos-AD), compared to 40 cognitively unimpaired amyloid beta-negative older co...
Beta-amyloid (Aβ) and tau proteins, the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD), are believed to spread through connected regions of the brain. Combining diffusion imaging and positron emission tomography, we investigated associations between white matter microstructure specifically in bundles connecting regions where Aβ or tau accumulat...
Introduction:
Older adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline (SCD) have a heightened risk of developing dementia and frequently experience subclinical anxiety, which is itself associated with dementia risk.
Objective:
To understand whether subclinical anxiety symptoms in SCD can be reduced through behavioral interventions.
Methods:
SCD...
Background
As the population ages, maintaining mental health and well-being of older adults is a public health priority. Beyond objective measures of health, self-perceived quality of life (QoL) is a good indicator of successful aging. In older adults, it has been shown that QoL is related to structural brain changes. However, QoL is a multi-facete...
Background
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are frequently found in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Commonly considered as a marker of cerebrovascular disease, regional WMH may be related to pathological hallmarks of AD, including beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and neurodegeneration. The aim of this study was to examine the regional distribution of WMH ass...
Background
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are a frequent marker of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Although WMH have been commonly linked to cerebrovascular disease, recent studies suggest an association between AD pathology and regional WMH distribution. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship of AD...
Background
Brain white matter hyperintensities (WMH) are frequent in older adults, including cognitively unimpaired individuals and are associated to decreased cognitive performances. The prevalence of WMH and their links with cognitive performance and with cortical β‐amyloid (Aβ) burden have been rarely assessed in younger adults. The aim of this...
Background
The Lifetime of Experiences questionnaire (LEQ, Valenzuela and Sachdev, 2007) is an instrument that comprehensively assesses mental activity (education/occupation and leisure activities) across the lifespan (13‐30, 30‐65, 65‐present). The LEQ has been associated with brain health outcomes and cognitive decline. Challenges for the use of...
Background
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial disease, characterized not only by pathological protein aggregation (Ab and tau), but also by early vascular dysfunctions and functional connectivity alterations (Iturria‐Medina 2016; van der Kant 2019). The study objective was to investigate the association between different markers of vascul...
Background
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are frequent in the older adults and are associated to worse cognitive performances and to dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is associated with greater brain WMH volume, particularly in posterior regions, compared to cognitively unimpaired older adults. The aim of this study was to assess in details the to...
Introduction:
Reserve, resilience, maintenance, and related concepts are intensely debated in aging and Alzheimer's disease research.
Methods:
Through a short survey, we gathered information about theoretical concepts and methodologies used among research groups of the Reserve, Resilience, and Protective Factors Professional Interest Area of the...
Background
White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are very frequent in older adults and associated with worse cognitive performance. Little is known about the links between WMH and vascular risk factors, cortical β-amyloid (Aβ) load, and cognition in cognitively unimpaired adults across the entire lifespan, especially in young and middle-aged adults....
Objective
To determine whether years of education and the ε4 risk allele at APOE influence β-amyloid pathology similarly in asymptomatic individuals with a family history of sporadic Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and pre-symptomatic autosomal dominant AD mutation carriers.
Methods
We analyzed cross-sectional data from 106 asymptomatic individuals with...
Time-based prospective memory (TBPM) allows us to remember to perform intended actions at a specific time in the future. TBPM is sensitive to the effects of age, but the neural substrates of this decline are still poorly understood. The aim of the present study was thus to better characterize the brain substrates of the age-related decline in TBPM,...
We aimed at developing a model able to predict brain aging from resting state functional connectivity (rs-fMRI) and assessing whether genetic risk/determinants of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and amyloid (Aβ) pathology contributes to accelerated brain aging. Using data collected in 1340 cognitively unimpaired participants from 18 to 94 years old select...
Introduction:
The Cognitive Debt hypothesis proposes that repetitive negative thinking (RNT), a modifiable process common to many psychological risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) may itself increase risk. We sought to empirically examine relationships between RNT and markers of AD, compared with anxiety and depression symptoms.
Methods:
T...
Importance
Vascular risk factors are associated with increased risk of Alzheimer disease (AD), but it is unclear whether there is a direct association of these risk factors with AD pathogenesis.
Objectives
To assess the associations of vascular risk factors with AD pathogenesis in asymptomatic individuals, and to test whether this association is m...
Objective:
To investigate relationships between flortaucipir (FTP) uptake, age, and established Alzheimer disease (AD) markers in asymptomatic adults at increased risk of AD.
Methods:
One-hundred nineteen individuals with a family history of AD (Presymptomatic Evaluation of Experimental or Novel Treatments of Alzheimer's Disease [PREVENT-AD] coh...
Age being the main risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, it is particularly challenging to disentangle structural changes related to normal brain ageing from those specific to Alzheimer's disease. Most studies aiming to make this distinction focused on older adults only and on a priori anatomical regions. Drawing on a large, multi-cohort dataset ran...
IMPORTANCE Fluid and imaging biomarkers of Alzheimer disease (AD) are often used interchangeably, but some biomarkers may reveal earlier stages of disease.
OBJECTIVE To characterize individuals with tau abnormality indicated by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assay or positron emission tomography (PET).
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Between 2010...
We evaluated event-based prospective memory (EBPM) in adolescents with Autism, varying the load of the to-be-performed intentions. We included measures of inhibition, working memory and binding. Results showed that increasing the retrospective memory load reduced performance in controls. In Autism, adolescents were impaired in the low load conditio...
The advent of amyloid-beta (Aβ) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has transformed the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by enabling the quantification of cortical Aβ accumulation and propagation in vivo. This revolutionary tool has made it possible to measure direct associations between Aβ and other AD biomarkers, to identify factors that...