Date of Graduation

5-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biological Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Gray, Michelle

Committee Member/Reader

Pare, Adam

Committee Member/Second Reader

Walker, Kate

Abstract

Currently, 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is a degenerative brain disease. It is currently the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States (Alzheimer’s Association, 2019). AD also possesses a financial burned on the United States, estimated to cost $290 billion in 2019. Sufferers of AD insidiously lose their memory, personality, and judgment abilities until there are no longer recognizable by their loved ones. Currently, the best chance suffers of AD have is to catch the disease early on to slow its effects. This is due to the fact that treatment can only prevent and slow down the disease not improve on the condition of the patient. One way to effectively do this is to determine the target population of individuals that are at risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI). To do that the natural cognitive decline in a person must be separated from the unnatural cognitive decline due to MCI. To do this, a cross-sectional study design was employed comparing two groups of women, one of which was older and one was younger. During each test, their demographics were recorded and they completed four different cognitive tests. All the tests were validated to measure an individual’s cognition. The test that provided the results that were analyzed was the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuro-psychological Status (RBANS), and the Dual-Task test. Ten younger subjects (M = 60.7, SD = 5.2) and 29 older subjects (M = 21.0, SD = 0.6) were tested. After statistical analysis of the RBANS scores of each group, it was determined that the older group tested significantly better than the younger group on all aspects of the test. This could have been for potential distractions in the younger group due to COVID complications or the higher education level of the older group compared to the younger group. It could also mean that cognition steadily increases until a tipping point that might be after the age of 70 years.

Keywords

Cognition; Natural decline in cognition; Cognitive tests; Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuro-psychological Status

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