Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

Altered motion inhibition, but not face detection, in preclinical familial Alzheimer’s disease

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Hannah Vidu¹ (hannahvidu@gmail.com), Kayla Kilmer¹, Alex Badillo-Cabrera², Diana Munera², Ana Baena³, Nikole Bonillas Felix², David Aguillon³, Yakeel Quiroz², Daniel Norton¹; ¹Gordon College, ²Massachusetts General Hospital, ³University of Antioquia

Developing inexpensive ways to identify Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the preclinical stage is of critical importance in addressing one of the largest medical issues in society. According to the Amyloid Cascade Hypothesis, AD is caused by the accumulation of amyloid-beta proteins, followed by tau buildup. Tau is most closely linked to cell death but is heterogeneous in its spread. The present study examines two psychophysical tests that rely, at least in part, on brain regions where tau often spreads in the early stages of the disease: (1) a face detection task, relying on the fusiform face area, and (2) a motion discrimination task, relying on the middle temporal area. In the latter, we examined baseline motion discrimination accuracy and the difference in accuracy between small and large grating stimuli on a motion discrimination task, which is thought to reflect center surround suppression (CSS), an inhibitory process within the visual system. To explore whether these tasks are sensitive to preclinical Alzheimer’s, we tested carriers of the PSEN-1 E280A mutation that leads to autosomal dominant AD (n=16) who were, on average, 10 years ahead of the expected onset of MCI (age 45), and compared their performance to their unaffected relatives (n=14). Preliminary results show that baseline motion performance was normal, but CSS was higher for E280A carriers. Face detection performance did not differ from controls. These findings suggest visual motion inhibition warrants further exploration as a potential early behavioral marker of AD.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Development & aging