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. 2021 May 27;13(1):e12203.
doi: 10.1002/dad2.12203. eCollection 2021.

Amyloid beta associations with connected speech in cognitively unimpaired adults

Kimberly D Mueller  1   2   3   4 , Carol A Van Hulle  2   4 , Rebecca L Koscik  2 , Erin Jonaitis  3 , Cassandra C Peters  1 , Tobey J Betthauser  2   4 , Bradley Christian  5   6 , Nathaniel Chin  2   3   4 , Bruce P Hermann  3   7 , Sterling Johnson  2   3   4   8
Affiliations

Amyloid beta associations with connected speech in cognitively unimpaired adults

Kimberly D Mueller et al. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). .

Abstract

Introduction: Connected speech and language (CSL) decline has been associated with early cognitive decline, but associations between CSL and Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers remain a gap in the literature. Our goal was to examine associations with amyloid beta (Aβ) and longitudinal CSL trajectories in cognitively unimpaired adults at increased AD risk.

Methods: Using data from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention, CSL measures were automatically extracted from digitally recorded picture descriptions. Positron emission tomography determined Aβ status. Linear mixed effects models assessed the interaction between age and Aβ on CSL trajectories.

Results: Participants who were Aβ positive experienced more rapid decline on specific word content, when controlling for age, sex, and literacy. There were no differences between groups in lexical diversity measures over time.

Discussion: These results indicate that declines in connected speech may be related to preclinical AD. CSL may be a promising, inexpensive, and easy-to-collect digital cognitive marker for AD studies.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Mild Cognitive Impairment; PET imaging; Pittsburgh Compound‐B; speech; computational linguistics; connected speech; dementia; discourse; language; picture description; preclinical Alzheimer's disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

Aside from external funding listed in the acknowledgments, no other authors have disclosures to report.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Change in type‐token ratio (top panel) and open‐closed ratio (bottom panel) by age and amyloid status (N = 255). TTR = type‐token ratio, a measure of unique words to total words capturing lexical diversity; Open/Closed Class Ratio = measure of specific to non‐specific content words capturing semantic content. Connected speech and language (CSL) outcomes are shown in their original scale to aid interpretation. Simple slopes (thick lines) for CSL outcomes regressed on age for amyloid positive (blue) and amyloid negative (tan) participants. Thin lines indicate raw data. Dashed = amyloid negative and solid = amyloid positive. Values > 3×SD over the mean were replaced with the mean + 3×SD
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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