Cognitive Test Given in Childhood May Predict Future Dementia

Useless piece of crap.  We need to know NOW what needs to be done to prevent dementia after our strokes. ARE YOU THAT FUCKING STUPID AND LAZY?

Your chances of getting dementia.

1. A documented 33% dementia chance post-stroke from an Australian study?   May 2012.

2. Then this study came out and seems to have a range from 17-66%. December 2013.

3. A 20% chance in this research.   July 2013.

4. Dementia Risk Doubled in Patients Following Stroke September 2018 

5. Parkinson’s Disease May Have Link to Stroke March 2017

 

 

Cognitive Test Given in Childhood May Predict Future Dementia

Childhood thinking skills may influence cognitive performance later in life, according to a study published in Neurology.

The study also found that education level and socioeconomic status were also predictors of thinking and memory performance.

“Finding these predictors is important because if we can understand what influences an individual’s cognitive performance in later life, we can determine which aspects might be modifiable by education or lifestyle changes like exercise, diet, or sleep, which may in turn slow the development of cognitive decline,” said Jonathan M. Schott, MD, University College London, London, United Kingdom.

For the study, Kirsty Lu, PhD, University College London, and colleagues analysed 502 individuals born in the same week in 1946 who took cognitive tests when they were aged 8 years. Between ages 69 and 71 years, participants took thinking and memory tests again. One test, similar to a test they completed as children, involved looking at various arrangements of geometric shapes and identifying the missing piece from 5 options. Other tests evaluated skills like memory, attention, orientation, and language. Performance was characterised with respect to sex, childhood cognitive ability, education, and socioeconomic position.

In a subsample of 406 cognitively normal participants, associations were investigated between cognition and amyloid beta positivity, whole brain volumes, white matter hyperintensity volumes, and APOE E4.

Participants had positron emission tomography scans to see if they had amyloid beta plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease. They also had detailed brain magnetic resonance imaging scans.

The researchers found that childhood thinking skills were associated with scores on the cognitive tests taken more than 60 years later, and there were independent effects of education and socioeconomic status. Women performed better than men in test of memory and thinking speed.

In addition, the researchers found that participants with amyloid beta plaques had lower scores on cognitive testing. However the presence of these plaques was not associated with sex, childhood cognitive skills, education, or socioeconomic status.

“Our study found that small differences in thinking and memory associated with amyloid plaques in the brain are detectable in older adults even at an age when those who are destined to develop dementia are still likely to be many years away from having symptoms,” concluded Dr. Schott. “It also found that childhood cognitive skills, education, and socioeconomic status all independently influence cognitive performance at age 70. Continued follow-up of these individuals, and future studies are needed to determine how to best use these findings to more accurately predict how a person’s thinking and memory will change as they age.”

Reference: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000008534

SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology