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49/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 49 out of 100. Genetics

Topic: Brain proteins, microglia and lab models

Plain-language summary

Background Fibrillar amyloid deposition preferentially affects the frontal lobes, temporal pole/neocortex, and posterior cingulate by age 65 years in APOE ε4 carriers prior to the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer disease (AD), but is it impairing frontally mediated neuropsychological performance? Methods A total of 71 ε4 homozygotes (HMZ), 194 ε4 heterozygotes (HTZ), and 356 ε4 noncarriers (NC) who did not differ significantly in mean age (56.6 years), years of education (15.6), gender (70% women), or follow-up duration (6.3 years) had neuropsychological testing every 2 years including the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and frontal/executive tasks sensitive to psychomotor speed, working memory, problem solving, and activity. A subset also received the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Findings were then tested in a clinical sample of 27 patients with incident MCI and AD. Results APOE ε4 carriers had greater acceleration of decline (quadratic effect) than NC on the AVLT (p = 0.04) but not on any frontal test. APOE ε4 HMZ had greater velocity of decline (linear effects) than NC on all mental arithmetic tests: paced auditory serial attention task (PASAT) 3 second (p = 0.01) and 2 second (p = 0.004) versions; and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised arithmetic (p = 0.048). IGT performance did not differ between 12 ε4 HMZ, 27 ε4 HTZ, and 44 NC. Among 27 patients with incident MCI and AD, the PASAT showed progressive decline preceding diagnosis in 50%. Conclusions No frontal cognitive effects were as robust as memory decline. APOE ε4 HMZ declined more quickly than NC on mental arithmetic tests related to frontal lobe-mediated working memory ability.

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APA 7th

Caselli, R. J., Dueck, A. C., Locke, D. E., Hoffman-Snyder, C. R., Woodruff, B. K., Rapcsak, S. Z., et al. (2011). Longitudinal modeling of frontal cognition in APOE ε4 homozygotes, heterozygotes, and noncarriers. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3182167147

Vancouver

Caselli RJ, Dueck AC, Locke DE, Hoffman-Snyder CR, Woodruff BK, Rapcsak SZ, et al. Longitudinal modeling of frontal cognition in APOE ε4 homozygotes, heterozygotes, and noncarriers. Neurology. 2011. doi:10.1212/wnl.0b013e3182167147. PMID: 21502596.

BibTeX

@article{caselli2011-21502596,
  author  = {Caselli, R. J. and Dueck, A. C. and Locke, D. E. and Hoffman-Snyder, C. R. and Woodruff, B. K. and Rapcsak, S. Z. and Reiman, E. M.},
  title   = {{Longitudinal modeling of frontal cognition in APOE ε4 homozygotes, heterozygotes, and noncarriers}},
  journal = {Neurology},
  year    = {2011},
  doi     = {10.1212/wnl.0b013e3182167147},
  pmid    = {21502596},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3182167147}
}

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 names 7 authors; APA and Vancouver show the first six, BibTeX and the downloads carry all of them. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

How to read this study

Design: our record does not state a study design, so check the methods section of the original before weighing the result.
Size: the record lists 27 participants. Ask whether that is enough for the question, and who they were.
Effect: the record gives no effect size, so the summary above cannot say how large any difference was.

What the evidence grade means here

This page is graded low. alzhub.org assigns the grade automatically from keywords in the abstract, not from reading the paper. Low means the abstract matched neither pattern. It is the default label, and it does not mean the work is poor; many sound lab and imaging papers land here. It can add at most 5 of the 100 points in the study score, and it is a label about design, not a verdict on whether the findings are true.

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Key findings

Methods A total of 71 ε4 homozygotes (HMZ), 194 ε4 heterozygotes (HTZ), and 356 ε4 noncarriers (NC) who did not differ significantly in mean age (56.6 years), years of education (15.6), gender (70% women), or follow-up duration (6.3 years) had neuropsychological testing every 2 years including the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and frontal/executive tasks sensitive to psychomotor speed, working memory, problem solving, and activity.
Results APOE ε4 carriers had greater acceleration of decline (quadratic effect) than NC on the AVLT (p = 0.04) but not on any frontal test.

Why it matters

In this longitudinal study, APOE ε4 carriers showed faster decline on a memory test but not on frontal tests, while ε4 homozygotes declined faster on some mental arithmetic tests. It describes cognitive changes linked to APOE ε4 and offers no treatment or prevention.

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Study details

Participants27
Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 49/100

Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, effect reported and randomized / 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	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	1 / 5	2011 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	1 / 4	27 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)
Randomized / blinded	0 / 2	No randomization or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	4 / 7	Cited 99 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	2 / 5	5.8 citations a year over 17 year(s) since 2011
Impact for its field and year	3 / 6	Cited 3.4× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	2 / 6	Cited by 8 other studies in this library
Still being cited	1 / 4	Cited 11 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	4 / 4	Last-listed author Eric M. Reiman: h-index 151 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	1 / 3	University of Arizona: institution h-index 1,336 (OpenAlex)
Multicenter collaboration	1 / 3	OpenAlex lists 3 institution(s) in 1 country
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 21502596)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Total	49 / 100	—

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