Cited by 303Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsAging and Gerontology Research

Early life linguistic ability, late life cognitive function, and neuropathology: findings from the Nun Study

Riley, Kathryn P., Snowdon, David A., Desrosiers, Mark F., Markesbery, William R.·2005·Neurobiology of Aging

Abstract

The relationships between early life variables, cognitive function, and neuropathology were examined in participants in the Nun Study who were between the ages of 75 and 95. Our early life variable was idea density, which is a measure of linguistic ability, derived from autobiographies written at a mean age of 22 years. Six discrete categories of cognitive function, including mild cognitive impairments, were evaluated, using the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) battery of cognitive tests. Neuropathologic data included Braak staging, neurofibrillary tangle and senile plaque counts, brain weight, degree of cerebral atrophy, severity of atherosclerosis, and the presence of brain infarcts. Early-life idea density was significantly related to the categories of late-life cognitive function, including mild cognitive impairments: low idea density was associated with greater impairment. Low idea density also was significantly associated with lower brain weight, higher degree of cerebral atrophy, more severe neurofibrillary pathology, and the likelihood of meeting neuropathologic criteria for Alzheimer's disease.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2004.06.019

Cites

36 of 36 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Riley, K. P., Snowdon, D. A., Desrosiers, M. F., & Markesbery, W. R.
Affiliations
University of Kentucky (US)
Corresponding author
Riley, Kathryn P.
Venue
Neurobiology of Aging
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2005-03
Volume
26
Issue
3
Pages
341-347
ISSN
0197-4580 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1980794267
Cited by
303
References
36
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 29 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 19
FWCI
6.22
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Neurobiology of Aging (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute on Aging (R01AG009862)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
Keywords
idea density, late-life cognitive function, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease pathology, neurofibrillary tangles, amyloid plaques, Braak staging, brain atrophy, brain weight, atherosclerosis, cerebral infarction, Nun Study
MeSH terms
Age Factors, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Autopsy, Brain, Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Female, Humans, Language Development, Linguistics, Longitudinal Studies, Neuropsychological Tests, Predictive Value of Tests, Risk Factors, Vocabulary, Writing, Neurofibrillary Tangles

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review