Spatial abilities in aging adults with Down Syndrome
Presentation Type
Abstract
Faculty Advisor
Yingying Yang
Access Type
Event
Start Date
25-4-2025 9:00 AM
End Date
25-4-2025 9:59 AM
Description
By age 40, individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) typically show Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related neuropathological changes (Fortea et al., 2020; Lott & Head, 2019). Visuospatial abilities have emerged among the early markers of AD-related cognitive decline in the general population (Mandal et al., 2012) but remain understudied in DS. This study aimed to explore the normative aging of spatial abilities in DS and their role in detecting AD-related cognitive decline. Data were obtained from the ABC-DS project (Handen et al., 2020), with 376 participants (Mean age = 45.34, SD=9.86) who completed cognitive assessments. Participants were classified into groups: cognitively stable (CS, n=259), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=53), and dementia (n=45). The following measures were used: Block Design (BD) (visuospatial construction), Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI) (visual-motor integration), Down Syndrome Mental Status Exam-Visuospatial (DSMSE-Visuospatial) (spatial construction abilities), and the DSMSE-total score (overall cognitive function). Hierarchical regression revealed age-related decline across all spatial measures. One-way ANOVA revealed that the CS group outperformed the MCI group, which in turn outperformed the dementia group (p < 0.05). ROC analysis revealed that BD had the highest classification accuracy (AUC = 0.79 for CS vs. MCI; AUC = 0.81 for MCI vs. dementia), while VMI showed lower sensitivity (AUC = 0.65). Spatial abilities in DS are sensitive to aging and AD progression. Individually, different spatial measures are not effective in diagnosing. Future research should refine spatial measures and integrate biomarkers to improve early detection and intervention in DS-related AD.
Spatial abilities in aging adults with Down Syndrome
By age 40, individuals with Down Syndrome (DS) typically show Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related neuropathological changes (Fortea et al., 2020; Lott & Head, 2019). Visuospatial abilities have emerged among the early markers of AD-related cognitive decline in the general population (Mandal et al., 2012) but remain understudied in DS. This study aimed to explore the normative aging of spatial abilities in DS and their role in detecting AD-related cognitive decline. Data were obtained from the ABC-DS project (Handen et al., 2020), with 376 participants (Mean age = 45.34, SD=9.86) who completed cognitive assessments. Participants were classified into groups: cognitively stable (CS, n=259), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=53), and dementia (n=45). The following measures were used: Block Design (BD) (visuospatial construction), Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (VMI) (visual-motor integration), Down Syndrome Mental Status Exam-Visuospatial (DSMSE-Visuospatial) (spatial construction abilities), and the DSMSE-total score (overall cognitive function). Hierarchical regression revealed age-related decline across all spatial measures. One-way ANOVA revealed that the CS group outperformed the MCI group, which in turn outperformed the dementia group (p < 0.05). ROC analysis revealed that BD had the highest classification accuracy (AUC = 0.79 for CS vs. MCI; AUC = 0.81 for MCI vs. dementia), while VMI showed lower sensitivity (AUC = 0.65). Spatial abilities in DS are sensitive to aging and AD progression. Individually, different spatial measures are not effective in diagnosing. Future research should refine spatial measures and integrate biomarkers to improve early detection and intervention in DS-related AD.
Comments
Poster presentation at the 2025 Student Research Symposium.