Abstract
Research to understand variability at the highest end of the cognitive performance distribution has been scarce. Our aim was to define a cognitive endophenotype based on exceptional episodic memory (EM) performance and to investigate familial aggregation of EM in families from the Long Life Family Study (LLFS). Using a sample of 1911 nondemented offspring of long-lived probands, we created a quantitative phenotype, EM (memory z ≥ 1.5), and classified LLFS families as EM and non-EM families based on the number of EM offspring. We then assessed differences in memory performance between LLFS relatives in the parental generation of EM families and those in non-EM families using multivariate analysis adjusted for APOE Apolipoprotein E genotype. LLFS relatives in the proband generation from EM families showed better EM performance than those from non-EM families (β= 0.74, standard error= 0.19, p= 1.4× 10-4). We demonstrated that there is a familial correlation of the EM endophenotype, suggesting that genetic variants might influence memory performance in long-lived families.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 2445-2448 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Neurobiology of Aging |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:LLFS is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (NIA cooperative agreements U01-AG023712 , U01-AG23744 , U01-AG023746 , U01-AG023749 , and U01-AG023755 ). Danish 1905-cohort is funded by National Institutes of Health/NIA , P01 AG08761 and the Danish Aging Research Center is funded by the VELUX Foundation . The authors specially thank Heidi Dubrouillet, Project Manager, at the Division of Statistical Genomics of Washington University School of Medicine.
Keywords
- Exceptional memory
- Genetic variants
- Long Life Family Study
- Quantitative trait