Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 52, Issue 1 P28-P39, Copyright © 1997 by The Gerontological Society of America
Patterns of motor impairement in normal aging, mild cognitive decline, and early Alzheimer's disease
A Kluger, JG Gianutsos, J Golomb, SH Ferris, AE George, E Franssen and B Reisberg
Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical Center, USA.
In order to determine the relationship between cognitive dysfunction and
motor behavior in older adults, 41 cognitively normal elderly (NL), 25
cases exhibiting mild cognitive impairment (MI), and 25 patients with mild
Alzheimer's disease (AD) were examined using a broad array to
motor/psychomotor and cognitive tests. Relative to the NL group, MI
individuals (at risk for future decline to AD) performed worse on tasks
involving fine and complex motor function (e.g., tracking and manual
dexterity). AD patients also exhibited motor dysfunction on tasks assessing
relatively more rudimentary motor control. Motor tasks were able to
distinguish NL vs MI and NL vs mild AD individuals as effectively as
cognitive tests of memory and language. These results indicate that motor
impairment is an important aspect of cognitive decline in older adults.
Motor/psychomotor assessments may be comparably sensitive to traditional
tests of cognitive function in identifying persons affected by the earliest
stages of AD pathology.
