Rafaela Ávila

• Federal University of Minas Gerais

Background New technologies have helped the biological diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease to make it more accurate over the years. However, establishing prognosis for each case is still a significant challenge, as there are different cognitive profiles in the same diagnosis. Also, there is no well‐defined standard for a cognitive profile that predict...

Background Studies on brain networks indicate that the functional integration between brain networks decreases progressively with Alzheimer`s disease (AD). The intermittent Theta Burst Stimulation (ITBS) has been shown to modulate the connectivity of DMN administered to parietal (PPC) and dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) cortex. Method We selected...

Background: Elderly population is rising significantly in Brazil. It may reach 25.5% of the population by 2060. Cognitive and functional declines may happen during pathological aging process. Low and medium-income countries tend to present higher dementia growth rate than high-income countries. The aim of this study was to assess whether socio-dem...

Background: Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have increased risk to convert to Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Our aim was to evaluate the role of auditory evoked potential N200 and P300 and serum level of BDNF in predicting conversion from MCI patients to AD, considering APOE and BDNF genetic background. Method: 32 MCI patients were...

Background Although randomized controlled trials have not confirmed cognitive impairing effects of statins, continuing evidence suggests statins have the ability to cause reversible cognitive impairment in some patients. Paradoxically, statins have also been shown to decrease risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and to improve cognitive impairmen...

Background Resilience is a concept related to individual diferences between functionality/cognition and clinical situations associated to aging. In Brazil, elderlies commonly have low educational level and, years of schooling , is not necessarily associated to learning. In this context, we hypothesize that inteligency could be a potencial proxy of...

Background Psychiatric disorders are among etiologies for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), one of the main one is depression. The relationship between depression and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is not yet fully understood and it is considered both, isolated risk factor and prodrome stage of AD. The aim of this work is to investigate if older adults wi...

Background Depression and diabetes mellitus (DM) are associated with an increased risk for dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Subcortical anatomical changes associated with processing speed impairment are shared by both DM subtypes. This profile is similar for depression, a condition in which processing speed and executive functions medi...

Objective: Aging studies regularly assume that years of education are a protective factor for baseline cognition. In developing countries with specific sociocultural issues, this relationship may not work as expected, and an unmet need remains for alternative resilience factors. This study aimed to analyze different moderators for the relationship...

Objective: To compare the results of neuropsychological tests, evoked potentials N200 and P300 and polymorphisms of ApoE and BDNF rs6265 between patients with normal cognition and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's dementia (AD). Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of elderly individuals with normal cognition and tho...

Objective: Translate, transcultural adaptation and application to Brazilian Portuguese of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study - Activities of Daily Living (ADCS-ADL) scale as a cognitive screening instrument. Method: We applied the back translation added with pretest and bilingual methods. The sample was composed by 95 elderly individuals an...

ABSTRACT. Objective: The assessment of visuospatial abilities and memory using tasks such as the Taylor Complex Figure Task (TCFT) is biased for older adults with low formal education. We devised a “Simplified” version of the TCFT designed to assess older adults with low educational background and provide preliminary evidence of its psychometric pr...

Objectives: In 2012, Kamboh and colleagues published a genome-wide association study that identified the DCHS2 gene (rs1466662 T/A) influencing the age at onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We aimed to investigate if there is association between the DCHS2 gene and amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and AD in a sample of the Brazilian popula...

Depressive symptoms are associated with cognitive-functional impairment in normal aging older adults (NA). However, less is known about this effect on people with mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer's disease dementia (AD). We investigated this relationship along with the NA-MCI-AD continuum by reanalyzing a previously published data...

Previous studies suggest that executive functions influence the performance on visuoconstructional tasks. This study aims to investigate whether the relationship between planning ability and the copy of complex figures is mediated by distinct components of executive functions (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility). We...

GAB2 GENE AND THE RISK FOR LOAD IN AN ELDERLY BRAZILIAN SAMPLE

Objective: To propose and evaluate the psychometric properties of a multidimensional measure of activities of daily living (ADLs) based on the Katz and Lawton indices for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: In this study, 85 patients with MCI and 93 with AD, stratified by age (≤ 74 years, > 74 years), completed...

The neuropsychological exam plays a central role in the assessment of elderly patients with cognitive complaints. It is particularly relevant to differentiate patients with mild dementia from those subjects with mild cognitive impairment. Formal education is a critical factor in neuropsychological performance; however, there are few studies that ev...

Naming Test of the Laboratory of Neuropsychological Investigations (TN-LIN): Preliminary psychometric properties

Background Planning is a component of executive functions and refers to the ability to establish the best way to achieve a specific goal, considering the hierarchy of steps necessary to achieve it. There are two types of planning. The preplanning or look-ahead occurs before the initiation of the behavior to achieve the goal, involving elaboration...

OObjective: Executive functions and processing speed assessment in subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are often made by use of classical neuropsychological tasks (e.g.: Stroop Color Word Test). Drawbacks in instruments like the chromatic and linguistic properties of...

Evaluation of executive functions in pathological aging

Relations between the effectiveness of planning and visual constructive apraxia in the elderly

Evaluation of episodic memory in elderly patients: use of RAVLT in Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment