The Signs of Normal Aging vs. Alzheimer's Disease: New Cognitive Test can Tell the Difference

The Alzheimer's Association estimates that the number of individuals living with this form of dementia will increase from 5 million in 2014 to as many as 16 million by 2050.

Yet a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois and the Beckman Institute shows that screening memory impairments can help differentiate between normal aging and the beginnings of the disease. 

Study authors Jim Monti, a postdoctoral research associate at University of Illinois, and psychology professor Neal Cohen of the Beckman Institute at Illinois, noted how the hippocampus plays a vital role in determining stored memories.

As previous research has shown that those with Alzheimer's disease often have impairments due to their hippocampal function, researchers tested participants' relational memory abilities. When they were shown circles divided into three parts, each with a unique design, researchers asked participants to bind three pieces of the circle together. This is similar to name-and-face binding used for other tests and recognition.

After the participants studied the circle, they could pick its exact match from a series of 10 circles, each presented one at a time.

Findings showed that those with mild Alzheimer's disease performed worse overall than healthy aging counterparts. In turn, they did worse than a group of young adults.

This unique impairment that allows researchers to differentiate between the two can help provide more accurate tests for classical and a-typical cases of the disease.

"That was illuminating and will serve to inform future work aimed at understanding and detecting the earliest cognitive manifestations of Alzheimer's disease," Monti said, via a press release. 

Although this new tool could eventually be used in clinical practice, more studies need to be done to refine the test, he said.

"We'd like to eventually study populations with fewer impairments and bring in neuroimaging techniques to better understand the initial changes in brain and cognition that are due to Alzheimer's disease," Monti said.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Neuropsychologia.