Home › Research › Brain scans and imaging
Association of parental dementia with cognitive and brain MRI measures in middle-aged adults
Debette S, Wolf PA, Beiser A, Au R, Himali JJ, Pikula A, Pikula A, Auerbach S et al.. Neurology, 2009-12-09
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
Objectives Studies of autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease (AD) have shown structural and cognitive changes in mutation carriers decades prior to clinical disease. Whether such changes are detectable in offspring of persons with sporadic dementia remains unknown. We related prospectively verified parental dementia to brain MRI and cognitive testing in the offspring, within a 2-generational community-based cohort. Methods A total of 717 Framingham offspring (mean age: 59 +/- 8 years) were studied. In multivariate analyses, we compared offspring with and without verified parental dementia (and AD) for 1) performance on tests of memory, abstract reasoning, and cognitive flexibility, and 2) volumetric brain MRI measures of total cerebral brain volume (TCBV), hippocampal volume (HV), and white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV), assessed cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Results When testing the association of parental dementia and AD with baseline cognitive performance, we observed an interaction of parental dementia and AD with APOE epsilon4 status (p Conclusions Among middle-aged carriers of the APOE epsilon4 allele, parental dementia and Alzheimer disease were associated with poorer verbal and visuospatial memory and a higher rate of global brain atrophy.
Key findings
- Results When testing the association of parental dementia and AD with baseline cognitive performance, we observed an interaction of parental dementia and AD with APOE epsilon4 status (p < 0.002).
Why it matters
Among middle-aged APOE ε4 carriers, having a parent with dementia or Alzheimer disease was associated with poorer verbal and visuospatial memory and a higher rate of global brain atrophy. This is an observational association in middle-aged adults, not a treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Brain scans & tests →
Study details
- Participants717
- Evidence strengthModerate
How this study scored 54/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Neurology) |
| Journal's citation record | 4 / 4 | Neurology: journal h-index 525 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 3 / 5 | Rated “moderate” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 2009 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 2 / 4 | 717 participants |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (participant count stated) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 4 / 7 | Cited 77 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 4.1 citations a year over 19 year(s) since 2009 |
| Impact for its field and year | 3 / 6 | Cited 5.6× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 1 / 6 | Cited by 2 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 1 / 4 | Cited 6 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 4 / 4 | Last-listed author Sudha S. Seshadri: h-index 148 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 3 / 3 | National Institutes of Health: institution h-index 2,723 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 2 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 4 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 20007524) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Total | 54 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Debette, S., Wolf, P. A., Beiser, A., Au, R., Himali, J. J., Pikula, A., et al. (2009). Association of parental dementia with cognitive and brain MRI measures in middle-aged adults. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181c67833
Vancouver
Debette S, Wolf PA, Beiser A, Au R, Himali JJ, Pikula A, et al. Association of parental dementia with cognitive and brain MRI measures in middle-aged adults. Neurology. 2009. doi:10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181c67833. PMID: 20007524.
BibTeX
@article{debette2009-20007524,
author = {Debette, S. and Wolf, P. A. and Beiser, A. and Au, R. and Himali, J. J. and Pikula, A. and Auerbach, S. and others},
title = {{Association of parental dementia with cognitive and brain MRI measures in middle-aged adults}},
journal = {Neurology},
year = {2009},
doi = {10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181c67833},
pmid = {20007524},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181c67833}
}
Studies this one cites
Referenced by this study and also in the alzhub library, so you can read them here.
Later studies that cite this one
2 studies in the alzhub library list this one in their references.
Related studies in Brain scans and imaging
Also tagged “biobank”
1,084 studies in the library carry the topic tag “biobank”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 1,084 tagged studies.