Magdalini Tsolaki

• Neuropsychiatrist, Professor
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms (NPS) in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) have multiple effects in daily living not only for the patients but for their caregivers too. The present systematic review was performed in order to identify if biomarkers, cognitive functions and personality traits can be considered as important factors for the development and maintenanc...

Background: The Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS) Tower Test (TT) is a widely used neuropsychological tool that assesses complex executive functions, including planning, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, switching, and impulsivity—key abilities often impaired in individuals with frontal dysfunction. Aims: There is currently no normat...

Background We investigated how cerebrospinal fluid levels of synaptic proteins associate with memory function in normal cognition (CN) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and investigated the effect of amyloid positivity on these associations. Methods We included 242 CN (105(43%) abnormal amyloid), and 278 MCI individuals (183(66%) abnormal amylo...

Family caregivers of dementia patients experience grief, not only after the death of the patient, but also during the course of the disease. The aim of the present study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Greek version (full and short) of the Marwit–Meuser Caregiver Grief Inventory (MM-CGI and MM-CGI Short Form) before death in a sam...

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and dementia are two distinct neurological conditions that affect millions of individuals worldwide. While they are primarily diagnosed in different age groups—ASD being usually diagnosed in early childhood and dementia commonly in older adults—there are intriguing similarities in their neurological, cognitive, and be...

Background Lifestyle factors have been associated with the risk of dementia, but the association with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) remains unclear. Objective To examine the association between later life lifestyle factors and AD biomarkers (i.e., amyloid-β 1–42 (Aβ42) and tau in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and hippocampal volume) in individuals with su...

Abstract: Background/Objectives: The study examined the relationships between specific Theory-of-Mind (ToM) dimensions, cognitive planning, and sleep duration in aging adults. Methods: The sample included 179 participants, comprising 46 cognitively healthy individuals, 75 diagnosed with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), and 58 with non-amn...

Introduction: The accurate diagnosis of aging-related neurocognitive disorders as early as possible, even in a phase that is characterized by the absence of clinical symptoms, is nowadays the holy grail of the neurosciences. R4Alz-R is a novel cognitive tool designed to objectively detect the subtle cognitive changes that emerge as the very first r...

Episodic memory is affected early and is a basic indication of neurodegeneration especially for Alzheimer’s disease. The aim of this study was to examine whether adults with vascular risk factors are differentiated in their episodic memory performance from individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Episodic memory of adults diagnosed with MC...

This study aimed to examine the associations between specific sleep parameters and specific aspects of cognitive functioning in individuals diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), compared with healthy controls (HCs) by using cognitive, subjective, and objective sleep measures. A total of 179 participants were enrolled, all aged ≥ 65 years...

The importance of night sleep for maintaining good physical and cognitive health is well documented as well as its negative changes during aging. Since Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients bear additional disturbances in their sleep, this study aimed at examining whether there are potential mixed effects of sleep and afternoon time of day (ToD)...

(1) Self-regulation of driving is a means of maintaining one’s driving identity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which older drivers with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are metacognitively aware of the requirements of specific demanding driving conditions and whether this awareness is linked to subjective assessments of...

R4Alz is utilized for the early detection of minor neurocognitive disorders. It was designed to assess three main dimensions of cognitive-control abilities: working-memory capacity, a􀀿entional control, and executive functioning. Objectives: To reveal the cognitive-control dimensions that can differentiate between adults and older adults with health...

This study was conducted in response to the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia and the significant risk faced by individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment with multiple-domain deficits (aMCI-md). Given the promising effects of MTPs, the primary aim of this study was to further explore their impact by assessing the...

Background In recent years, studies have examined the acceptability and attitudes that influence the intention to early screen for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the general population, older people, carers, and asymptomatic individuals who report a family history of AD. However, it remains unclear what specific factors promote or reduce the acceptabi...

Background Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) is a widely used screening tool for detecting older adults with Alzheimer’s disease among their cognitively healthy peers. A previous study in Greek population showed that ADAS-Cog-Greek (G) is a valid tool and can identify people with Alzheimer’s disease from older adult...

Objectives This study aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the global challenge of dementia on female caregivers. Specifically, the objectives include examining caregivers' experiences before and after the pandemic and assessing the anticipated increase in caregiver burden and death anxiety. Method Two groups of female caregive...

Metacognition, the ability to monitor and regulate cognitive processes, is essential for individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) to accurately identify their deficits and effectively manage them. However, previous studies primarily focused on memory awareness in MCI, neglecting other domains affected in daily life. This study aimed to inve...

The aim of the present study was to examine how a person with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment perceives the phenomenon of deception. Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) usually represents the prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD), with patients showing memory impairment but with normal activities of daily living. It was expected that...

Background Measuring dementia knowledge can be a valuable tool for assessing the effectiveness of dementia awareness activities, identifying the potential benefits of dementia training programs, and breaking down common myths and stereotypes about dementia. Objective To compare the psychometric properties of three widely used dementia knowledge to...

Introduction: Pre-symptomatic screening is getting more attention in healthcare as it detects the risk for developing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is very useful for treatment or prevention. AD screening could play an important role in individuals with at least one affected first-degree relative, but also without...

Objectives: This pilot study aims to explore the potential of a positive psychology intervention (PPI) in enhancing the subjective wellbeing of older individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a precursor to dementia. Design and Setting: A randomized trial was conducted, initially recruiting 51 participants aged 65 and above from t...

The current study examines the relationship between the cognitive state of participants [healthy-early mild cognitive impairment (MCI)–late MCI], some subjective wellbeing factors (positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning in life, accomplishment, and negative emotions), and negative psychological outcomes (depression, anxiety,...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with deficits in decision-making, which isof utmost importance for daily functioning. Despite evidence of declined decision-making abilities,research on decision-making interventions for MCI is scarce. As metacognition seems to play animportant role in decision-making, the present study’s aim was to exa...

Background Pre-symptomatic screening methods for detecting a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are gaining popularity; thus, more people are seeking these tests. However, to date, not much is known about the attitudes toward pre-symptomatic AD screening. Objective The goal of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of a tool for...

The study aimed to examine metacognitive abilities in individuals with amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI) using online metacognitive measures during cognitive tasks. In total, 100 participants were enrolled, aged 50 and older (mean=61.98; SD=6.27), with a minimum of six years of education (mean=14.95; SD=2.94). The sample comprised 50 aMCI i...

The present study investigated the pattern of relations among the tacit knowledge of highschool teachers, their professional development, and their metacognitive knowledge concerningtheir teaching practices. Two hundred and seventy-nine secondary school teachers of both sexes,between the ages of 30 and 59 years, with teaching experience of between...

Background: The majority of previous studies showed that older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as well as Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD) had impaired cognition and mood status, as well as increased behavioral disturbances after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are still controversial data as regards the multi...

Objectives: To investigate the beneficial outcomes of giving cannabidiol (CBD) 3% over a six-month period in the BPSD, the management of which is a crucial issue for everyday clinical praxis and to compare the progress in BPSD of patients who receive Cannabidiol 3% with those who follow usual medical treatment (UMT) in everyday clinical praxis. Me...

This guidebook is intended to purpose concise guidance for professionals in cognitive training including a brief orientation about popular cognitive assessment tools and cognitive-oriented interventions as well. This book is principally focusing on all types of cognitive-oriented interventions including cognitive training, cognitive stimulation, ps...

Background: The diagnosis of the minor neurocognitive diseases in the clinical course of dementia before the clinical symptoms’ appearance is the holy grail of neuropsychological research. The R4Alz battery is a novel and valid tool that was designed to assess cognitive control in people with minor cognitive disorders. The aim of the current study...

With the aging of the population, a key concern of both societies and health services is to keep the population cognitively healthy until the maximum age limit. It is a well-known fact that vascular aging has a negative effect on the cognitive skills of adults, putting them at greater risk of developing dementia. The present longitudinal study aime...

Background: Nowadays, controversy exists regarding the stage of cognitive decline and/or dementia where voting capacity is diminished. Aim: To evaluate whether general cognitive status in advancing age predicts voting capacity in its specific aspects. Methods: The study sample comprised 391 people: 88 cognitively healthy older adults (CH), 150 peop...

The identification of basic emotions plays an important role in social relationships and behaviors linked to survival. In neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer´s disease (AD), the ability to recognize emotions may already be impaired at early stages of the disease, such as the stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). However, as regards v...

The multidimensional effect of aging on cognition and its interference with daily functioning is well reported by many studies. Therefore, the ability to detect age-related cognitive changes is of great importance for older adults to help compensate for cognitive decline. For that, metacognition and its course of change across the lifespan of a per...

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the main challenges of modern medicine since no cure has been found yet, the scientific community still does not fully understand the reasoning behind it, and any interventions found can delay the progress for only a limited amount of time. Over the years, research has shifted from attempts for curing the disease to ef...

Episodic memory is the type of memory that allows the recollection of personal experiences containing information on what has happened and, also, where and when it happened. Because of its sensitivity to neurodegenerative diseases and the aging of the brain, it is considered a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease dementia (ADD). The objective of the pre...

Aim. To assess factors which are associated with the attitude of informal caregivers towards dementia. Background. More than two-third of people with dementia live at home, cared by family caregivers. The quality of care depends amongst others from the caregivers´ attitude towards dementia which can influence decisions like nursing-home placement o...

Background Dementia is rapidly increasing worldwide due to demographic aging. More than two-thirds of patients are cared by family members. The quality of care depends on the caregivers’ attitude toward dementia influencing patient care decisions. Objective The aim of this study is to examine the factors that influence the caregivers’ attitude and...

Ιntroduction: The behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are still among the most difficult symptoms in the management of dementia. It is estimated that BPSD affect up to 90% of all dementia subjects over the course of their illness, and is independently associated with poor outcomes, including distress among patients and caregive...

Objective: Hallucinations is a core characteristic symptom in Lewy Body Dementia (DLB) and Parkinson's Dementia (PDD). It may also appear at the late stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). They are not easily managed, and they are associated with cognitive decline, earlier institutionalization, increased mortality, and increased caregivers' burden....

Στα πλαίσια της τρέχουσας πανδημίας COVID-19, κυβερνήσεις σε όλο τον κόσμο λαμβάνουν μέτρα για την προστασία της υγείας, της ευημερίας και της ζωής εκατομμυρίων κατοίκων σε σχέση με τις τρέχουσες και προβλεπόμενες ανάγκες, βάσει επιστημονικών συμβουλών, επιδημιολογικών μοντέλων, αμοιβαίας μάθησης από άλλες χώρες και αναδυόμενες ιατρικές εξελίξ...

AD-GAMING is a platform (www.adgaming.ibv.org) which focuses on increasing the technological skills of people with dementia (PwD), their families and caregivers, thus allowing them to use Serious Games (SGs) with the purpose of improving their quality of life. This program promotes the equity and inclusion of PwD, as it allows them to be an active...

When dementia is diagnosed, specific emotions, crucial for the post-diagnostic experience, emerge in the family members of the person with dementia. The present study investigated feelings about the diagnosis at the time of its announcement as well as the feelings that urged family members to get involved in counseling sessions or delay seeking hel...

Objective: The Memory Alteration Test (M@T) is a verbal episodic and semantic memory screening test able to discriminate mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The aim of this study was two-fold: 1) to adapt M@T to the Greek language and culture, creating a European Greek version of the Memory Alteration Test (M@T-...

The aim of the study was to examine potential cognitive, mood (depression and anxiety) and behavioral changes that may be related to the quarantine and the lock down applied during the COVID-19 pandemic in Greek older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD dementia in mild and moderate stages. Method: 407 older adults, diagnosed either...

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to validate the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11th version) scale as well as the short version of the Impulsive Behavior Scale (UPPS-P) in a population of Greek young adults. Secondly, we aimed at validating the BIS-11 in older adults. Methods: 167 (Group 1) university students completed the Greek v...

Background Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) constitutes a natural compound with high protection over cognitive function that could positively alter brain dynamics and the mixture of within and between-frequency connectivity. Objective The balance of cross-frequency coupling over within-frequency coupling can build a nonlinearity index (NI) that encap...

Objective: The aim of the current study was to estimate the discriminant potential and validity of the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) of the WAIS-R in the Greek elderly population meeting criteria for subjective cognitive decline (SCD), mild cognitive impairment (aMCI; amnestic subtype), or Alzheimer’s disease dementia (ADD). Method: Four hu...

Background Mobile Health (mHealth) apps can delay the cognitive decline of people with dementia (PwD), by providing both objective assessment and cognitive enhancement. Objective This patient involvement survey aims to explore human factors, needs and requirements of PwD, their caregivers, and Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) with respect to suppor...

Introduction: Recent studies have shown that insulin resistance and deficiency, a marker of Diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM), interact with beta amyloid and tau protein phosphorylation, which are the basic neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Based on these results, it was recently proposed that AD might be considered as ‘Diabetes...

Recent studies deal with disorders and deficits caused by vascular syndrome in efforts for prediction and prevention. Cardiovascular health declines with age due to vascular risk factors, and this leads to an increasing risk of cognitive decline. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is defined as the negative cognitive changes beyond what is expected in...

Proper dietary habits pave the way for a good and healthy life in order to maintain and prolong the quality of life. It is well known that quality of life in the elderly can be achieved by non-pharmacological approaches such as performing physical activity, cognitive training, or adhering to a Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet). The MedDiet is suggested...

The daily consumption of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) in Mediterranean nutrition is tightly associated with lower frequency of many diseases' appearance, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Fibrinolytic system is already assumed to be involved in AD pathophysiology through various factors, especially plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), a2-a...

Background: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) impairs the ability to carry out daily activities, reduces independence and quality of life and increases caregiver burden. Our understanding of functional decline has traditionally relied on reports by family and caregivers, which are subjective and vulnerable to recall bias. The Internet of Things (IoT) and we...

INTRODUCTION: This study sought to discover and replicate plasma proteomic biomarkers relating to Alzheimer's disease (AD) including both the "ATN" (amyloid/tau/neurodegeneration) diagnostic framework and clinical diagnosis. METHODS: Plasma proteins from 972 subjects (372 controls, 409 mild cognitive impairment [MCI], and 191 AD) were measured usin...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is increasingly affecting the aging population and the estimated prevalence reaches 50 million people worldwide. The need for the discovery of new biomarkers for AD diagnosis is urgent and especially in biological fluids other than cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), as its collection is invasive. Arguments are numerous that chronic...

Brain Training games are increasingly gaining attention as a non-pharmacological intervention to promote well-being and quality of life in people living with dementia. Herein we present the COSMA software and a pilot study to evaluate its impact on the emotions of people in the spectrum of dementia. The software was created in accordance to the UK...

The attempt to identify individuals at risk of developing cognitive impairment, or to characterize the cognitive status of every person as a reference, was our objective to make a simple-short computer-based, cognitive battery.

The balance of cross-frequency coupling (CFC) over within-frequency coupling (WFC) can build a nonlinearity index (NI) that encapsulates the over-excitation of information flow between brain areas and across experimental time. The present study investigated for the very first time how the Greek High Phenolic Early Harvest Extra Virgin Olive Oil (HP...

Background There is a need for new practical tools to assess the cognitive impairment of small vessel disease (SVD) patients in the clinic. Objective This study aimed to examine cognitive functioning by administering the Virtual Supermarket (VST) in patients with SVD with cognitive impairment (SVD-CI, N = 32), cognitively normal SVD (SVD-CN, N = 3...

Brain vascular damage accumulate in aging and often manifest as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) on MRI. Despite increased interest in automated methods to segment WMHs, a gold standard has not been achieved and their longitudinal reproducibility has been poorly investigated. The aim of present work is to evaluate accuracy and reproducibility o...

Even though Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, the mechanisms governing the establishment and progression of the disease remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated the implication of the neuroprotective protein BMI1 (B lymphoma Mo-MLV insertion region 1 homolog) in AD and the possibility to reverse the onset of the di...

Neuronal cell death at late stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) causes the release of cytosolic proteins. One of the most abundant such proteins, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), forms stable aggregates with extracellular amyloid- (A). We detect these aggregates in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from AD patients at levels directly prop...

Introduction: This study investigated the diagnostic and disease-monitoring potential of plasma biomarkers in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia and cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals. Methods: Plasma was analyzed using Simoa assays from 99 CU, 107 MCI, and 103 AD dementia participants. Results: Phosphor...

Objective : The balance of cross-frequency coupling (CFC) over within-frequency coupling (WFC) can build a nonlinearity index (NI) that encapsulates the over-excitation of information flow between brain areas and across experimental time. The present study investigated for the very first time how the Greek High Phenolic Early Harvest Extra Virgin O...

Alzheimer’s disease is biologically heterogeneous, and detailed understanding of the processes involved in patients is critical for development of treatments. CSF contains hundreds of proteins, with concentrations reflecting ongoing (patho)physiological processes. This provides the opportunity to study many biological processes at the same time in...

Background Both serotonergic signalling disruption and systemic inflammation have been associated with the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The common denominator linking the two is the catabolism of the essential amino acid, tryptophan. Metabolism via tryptophan hydroxylase results in serotonin synthesis, whilst metabolism via indoleamine...

Background With greying of nations, dementia becomes a public health priority. The rising dementia prevalence escalates both health care expenses and burden, placing the entire healthcare system and caregivers under huge stress. Cognition-oriented interventions have been shown to enhance the overall cognitive performance among healthy and cognitive...

People with Dementia (PwD) are frequently admitted in general hospitals. However, health care professionals have lack of dementia knowledge, negative attitudes toward dementia, and lack of confidence in caring those patients. The aim of this study is to develop, implement and evaluate a dementia staff training program in Greek general hospitals. It...

Finding early disease markers using non-invasive and widely available methods is essential to develop a successful therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease. Few studies to date have examined urine, the most readily available biofluid. Here we report the largest study to date using comprehensive metabolic phenotyping platforms (NMR spectroscopy and UHPLC-MS)...

Background Deep learning (DL) has provided impressive results in numerous domains in recent years, including medical image analysis. Training DL models requires large data sets to yield good performance. Since medical data can be difficult to acquire, most studies rely on public research cohorts, which often have harmonized scanning protocols and s...

Background Detailed neuropsychological assessment is essential to detect cognitive impairment in SVD. Therefore, a brief cognitive test is needed as an alternative to extensive assessment (Peng et al., 2019). The aim of this study is to examine cognitive functions between SVD with cognitive impairment (SVD‐CI), cognitively normal SVD (SVD‐CN), and...

Background Memory loss is central to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but the precise underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Post‐mortem research suggests that synaptic loss best explains symptoms. Here, we investigated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) whether levels of synaptic proteins are related with memory scores in older individuals with normal cognition...

Background The discovery of migrating protein complexes armed with β‐amyloid (Aβ) and acting as the driving force of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) mechanism led us to suggest that besides the pathogenic peptide some other proteins may cooperate with the latter and enhance its cytotoxicity and intercellular propagation. One of such proteins was suggested...

Background Suspected non‐Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology (SNAP) is a biomarker‐defined concept that encompasses individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neuronal injury but without amyloidosis. We have previously shown that 24% of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) individuals with SNAP will progress within 3 years to the AD dementia stage. Nonet...

Background While the last two decades have seen important advances in the in vivo detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology (i.e. β‐amyloid [Aβ] and Tau) using biomarkers (PET‐ and CSF‐based), the global use of these measures is quite limited due to high costs, insufficient availability and their invasive nature. Interest in blood‐based bioma...

Background Neurodegenerative, amyloid and vascular pathologies have all been associated with cognitive performance, but their interrelationship remains uncertain. We investigated the associations between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurofilament light (NfL), a biomarker for neurodegeneration, with four different cognitive measures in individuals with...

Background The amygdala and the hippocampus are two limbic structures that play a critical role in cognition and behaviour but their small size hampers their manual segmentation in multicenter datasets. Here, we assessed the reliability of the automated segmentation of amygdalar nuclei and hippocampal subfields across sites and vendors. We applied...

Background In recent years, blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have attracted much interest. Technological advances have allowed quantification of markers for neurodegeneration (NfL), neurofibrillary tangles (p‐tau181) and amyloid‐β pathology (Aβ42, Aβ42/Aβ40), which perform well in cohorts stratified by cerebrospinal fluid and positron...

Background Alzheimer’s disease is associated with increases in amyloid β and hyperphosphorylated tau which is thought to occur decades before the onset of clinical symptoms, leading to cell loss and inhibition. Finding biomarkers to detect these changes before neuronal loss and therefore permanent damage has occurred is integral. Current biomarkers...

Background The quantification of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers (Abeta peptides [Ab 1‐40 and Ab 1‐42 ], tau protein and its phosphorylated form phospho‐tau) is progressively implemented in laboratories as an aid for the multidisciplinary diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD), DeKosky ST, Alz dementia, 2011, PMID: 21322828 . However, no consensu...

Background The National Institute on Aging‐Alzheimer’s Association (NIA‐AA) proposed the ATN framework as a classification system for Alzheimer’s disease. The ATN framework helps to inform participant inclusion and potentially trial outcomes as clinical trials are increasingly targeting a range of pathologies. However, it is limited by biomarkers t...

Background Despite the abundance of research on computerized dementia screening tests, the attitudes of hospital personnel toward this screening method have not been investigated. Objective 1) To conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of the first part of a two-part questionnaire about computerized dementia screening. 2) To assess the attitudes of...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterised by abnormal amyloid beta and tau processing. Previous studies reported that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) total tau (t-tau) levels vary between patients. Here we show that CSF t-tau variability is associated with distinct impairments in neuronal plasticity mediated by gene repression factors SUZ12 and REST. AD...