Published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, the multicentre study was led by Adrià Tort-Merino, a postdoctoral researcher of the IDIBAPS research group Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders and coordinated by neuropsychologist and researcher Lorena Rami and Raquel Sánchez-Valle, the head of the group. Hospital de Sant Pau and Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla in Santander also participated.
This study involved 209 candidates over 45 years of age with preserved cognitive and functional performance. They all underwent a series of tests to determine if they had Alzheimer’s disease and a complete neuropsychological evaluation. This neuropsychological evaluation was repeated annually in the two years following the first visit.
What the research team observed was that people who had tested positive for biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease, but in whom it had not yet manifested, showed a reduction in the effects of the practice. This means that they did not improve their performance in cognitive tests of verbal learning, memory or language exercises, even after repeating them several times over time.
‘In this study, we focused on identifying subtle cognitive markers to detect the first manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease. These small changes can help us to make an early diagnosis in people who are at risk of developing the disease and allow for more comprehensive monitoring. And also, they can also be useful for designing, developing and interpreting clinical prevention trials’, concludes Adrià Tort-Merino, an IDIBAPS researcher and the first author of the study.
Paper of reference
Tort-Merino A, Pérez-Millan A, Falgàs N, et al. Decreased practice effects in cognitively unimpaired amyloid betapositive individuals: a multicenter, longitudinal, cohort study. Alzheimer's Dement. 2025; 21:e70016. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.70016 (Open access)
