Table_1_Stimulus material selection for the Dutch famous faces test for older adults.docx

Worldwide, approximately 22% of all individuals aged 50 years and older are currently estimated to fall somewhere on the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) continuum, which can be roughly divided into preclinical AD, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD dementia. While episodic memory loss (among other aspects) is typically required for a diagnosis of AD dementia, MCI is said to have occurred when cognitive impairment (including memory loss) is worse than expected for the person’s age but not enough to be classified as dementia. On the other hand, preclinical AD can currently only be detected using biomarkers; clinical symptoms are not apparent using traditional neuropsychological tests. The main aim of the current paper was to explore the possibility of a test which could distinguish preclinical AD from normal aging. Recent scientific evidence suggests that the Famous Faces Test (FFT) could differentiate preclinical AD from normal aging up to 5 years before a clinical AD diagnosis. Problematic with existing FFTs is the selection of stimulus material. Faces famous in a specific country and a specific decade might not be equally famous for individuals in another country or indeed for people of different ages. The current article describes how famous faces were systematically selected and chosen for the Dutch older (60+) population using five steps. The goal was to design and develop short versions of the FFT for Dutch older adults of equivalent mean difficulty. In future work, these nine parallel versions will be necessary for (a) cross-sectional comparison as well as subsequent longitudinal assessment of cognitively normal and clinical groups and (b) creating personalized norms for the normal aged controls that could be used to compare performance within individuals with clinical diagnoses. The field needs a simple, cognitive test which can distinguish the earliest stages of the dementia continuum from normal aging.

在全球范围内，目前估计约有22%的50岁及以上的个体处于阿尔茨海默病（AD）的连续谱中，该连续谱大致可分为临床前期AD、轻度认知障碍（MCI）和AD痴呆。尽管记忆丧失（及其他方面）通常是AD痴呆诊断的必要条件，但MCI的发生意味着认知障碍（包括记忆丧失）程度超过预期但不足以被归类为痴呆。另一方面，临床前期AD目前仅可通过生物标志物检测，而传统神经心理学测试无法显现临床症状。本文的主要目的是探讨一种能够区分临床前期AD与正常衰老的测试的可能性。近期科学证据表明，著名面孔测试（FFT）能够在临床AD诊断前5年内区分临床前期AD与正常衰老。现有FFT的问题在于刺激材料的选择。在某些国家或某个特定年代著名的人物面孔，可能不会在其他国家或不同年龄的人中享有同等知名度。本文描述了如何通过五个步骤系统地选择和挑选出适合荷兰老年（60岁以上）人群的著名面孔。目标是设计和开发与FFT同等难度的简短版本，适用于荷兰老年人的认知测试。未来的工作中，这九个并行版本将用于（a）横断面比较以及随后的纵向评估认知正常组和临床组，以及（b）为正常年龄对照组创建个性化标准，以便在具有临床诊断的个人之间进行比较。该领域需要一种简单、认知的测试，能够将痴呆连续谱的最早阶段与正常衰老区分开来。