My research is focused on several areas with the central theme of early detection of cognitive changes and risk factors associated with the development of Alzheimer‘s disease (AD) and other dementias. Current areas of investigation are a) the epidemiology of cognitive decline and mild cognitive impairment due to AD, b) the study of cognitive endophenotypes, c) genetic risk factors for late onset AD, and d) the development of statistical methods to model cognitive profiles as they manifest at early stages of disease.
Recent work on endophenotyping (pre-clinical cognitive profiles) utilized data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Centers (NACC) study. This is a national, longitudinal effort to collect standardized data, including risk factors, diagnoses, and DNA, from Alzheimer’s Disease Centers (ADCs) across the US (see resource page for more information). Preliminary results from this project will be reported at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, Vancouver, BC Canada, July 2012.
Hayden KM, Jones RN, Zimmer C, Plassman BL, Browndyke JN, Pieper C, Warren LH, Welsh-Bohmer KA. Factor Structure of the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Centers Uniform Dataset Neuropsychological Battery: An evaluation of invariance between and within groups over time. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord. 2011; 25(2):128-137.
Hayden KM, Kuchibhatla M, Burke JR, Plassman BL, Romero HR, Welsh-Bohmer KA. Pre-clinical cognitive phenotypes for Alzheimer’s disease: a latent profile approach. Presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, Vancouver BC, July 2012
The research team at the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (Bryan ADRC) has been working on operationalizing the new research guidelines for mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease (MCI due to AD) using data from the Cache County Study on Memory Health and Aging (CCMS). Because MCI due to AD was prospectively diagnosed in the CCMS, we can use this retrospective data to model cognitive profiles of individuals who were subsequently diagnosed with MCI due to AD and dementia. These data, derived from up to 14 years of observation are a valuable resource for studying the sensitivity and specificity of neuropsychological tests for the early detection of MCI due to AD.
Mayeux R, Reitz C, Brickman AM, Haan MN, Manly JJ, Glymour MM, Weiss CC, Yaffe K, Middleton L, Hendrie HC, Warren LH, Hayden KM, Welsh-Bohmer KA, Breitner JCS, Morris JC. Operationalizing diagnostic criteria for Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive impairment—Part 1*. Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 2011; 7(1): p.15-34.
Other recent work has been focused on genetic risk factors for AD including the TOMM40 gene and its effect on neurocognitive performance.
Hayden KM, McEvoy JM, Linnertz C, Attix D, Kuchibhatla M, Welsh-Bohmer KA, Roses AD, Chiba-Falek O. A homopolymer polymorphism at the TOMM40 gene contributes to cognitive performance in aging. Alzheimer’s & Dementia 2012 (in Press).
Finally, extensive data from the CCMS allows our team to continue investigations into the epidemiology of AD.
Shao H., Breitner JCS, Whitmer RA, Wang J, Hayden K, Wengreen H, Corcoran C, Tschanz J, Norton M, Munger R, Welsh-Bohmer K, Zandi PP. Hormone Therapy and AD Dementia: new Findings from The Cache County Study. Neurology 2012 (In Press)