Across much of the industrialized world people are living longer. Although longevity has many positive aspects, the changing demographics of cognitive aging are placing unprecedented demands upon our healthcare system. We are currently facing an epidemic of Alzheimer's Disease and associated disorders, the economic and psychosocial burden of which is immense. Our healthcare system is unprepared for the exponential rise in dementia incidence as the demand for skilled, institutionalized care outstrips our capacity to provide such care. We must improve the medical management of dementia to promote aging-in-place such that patients maintain functional independence for as long as possible. Early detection is a key component of effective management. Dementia diagnosis currently relies upon the expression of cognitive impairment. The problem with this approach is that it is reactive. By the time cognitive impairment is observed, the brain is often irreversibly damaged. Vital improvements in early detection will necessarily involve integrating physiological biomarkers with behavioral change. Here we will investigate the human pupillary response both to light and to cognitive load as a predictor for preclinical dementia. We will characterize pupillary response behavior over the span of one year in a cohort of older African American adults at an elevated risk for dementia, relative to neurotypical adults. We will examine relations between pupil response behavior and cognitive functioning. In a separate neuroimaging study, we will investigate relationships between brain structure and pupillary behavior by pairing eyetracking with functional MRI with specific attention to brain regions that are vulnerable to dementia pathology. These studies will provide normative data on the human pupillary response in cognitive aging, against which diagnostic contrasts for pathology (i.e., presence of dementia) will be gauged. 1

Public Health Relevance

This project will investigate the sensitivity of small reflexive movements within the pupil of the human eye to predict cognitive and language decline in a cohort of underrepresented minority older adults. In a companion neuroimaging study, we will investigate how the human brain coordinates pupillary movements in response to light and cognitive demand. These studies hold promise for evaluating pupil responses as a predictor of preclinical dementia.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01DC013063-06S1
Application #
9881032
Study Section
Program Officer
Cooper, Judith
Project Start
2014-02-01
Project End
2024-01-31
Budget Start
2019-02-01
Budget End
2020-01-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2019
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Temple University
Department
Public Health & Prev Medicine
Type
Schools of Public Health
DUNS #
057123192
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19122
Binney, Richard J; Zuckerman, Bonnie M; Waller, Hilary N et al. (2018) Cathodal tDCS of the bilateral anterior temporal lobes facilitates semantically-driven verbal fluency. Neuropsychologia 111:62-71
Rycroft, Sarah Seligman; Giovannetti, Tania; Shipley, Thomas F et al. (2018) Windows to functional decline: Naturalistic eye movements in older and younger adults. Psychol Aging 33:1215-1222
Binney, Richard J; Ashaie, Sameer A; Zuckerman, Bonnie M et al. (2018) Frontotemporal stimulation modulates semantically-guided visual search during confrontation naming: A combined tDCS and eye tracking investigation. Brain Lang 180-182:14-23
Primativo, Silvia; Reilly, Jamie; Crutch, Sebastian J (2017) Abstract Conceptual Feature Ratings Predict Gaze Within Written Word Arrays: Evidence From a Visual Wor(l)d Paradigm. Cogn Sci 41:659-685
Troche, Joshua; Crutch, Sebastian J; Reilly, Jamie (2017) Defining a Conceptual Topography of Word Concreteness: Clustering Properties of Emotion, Sensation, and Magnitude among 750 English Words. Front Psychol 8:1787
Cousins, Katheryn A Q; York, Collin; Bauer, Laura et al. (2016) Cognitive and anatomic double dissociation in the representation of concrete and abstract words in semantic variant and behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration. Neuropsychologia 84:244-51
Reilly, Jamie; Peelle, Jonathan E; Garcia, Amanda et al. (2016) Linking somatic and symbolic representation in semantic memory: the dynamic multilevel reactivation framework. Psychon Bull Rev 23:1002-14
Reilly, Jamie; Garcia, Amanda; Binney, Richard J (2016) Does the sound of a barking dog activate its corresponding visual form? An fMRI investigation of modality-specific semantic access. Brain Lang 159:45-59
Reilly, Jamie (2016) How to constrain and maintain a lexicon for the treatment of progressive semantic naming deficits: Principles of item selection for formal semantic therapy. Neuropsychol Rehabil 26:126-56
Binney, Richard J; Zuckerman, Bonnie; Reilly, Jamie (2016) A Neuropsychological Perspective on Abstract Word Representation: From Theory to Treatment of Acquired Language Disorders. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 16:79

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