Title:Interactions between Personality, Depression, Anxiety and Cognition to Understand Early Stage of Alzheimer’s Disease
Volume: 20
Issue: 9
Author(s): Valérie Zufferey, Armin von Gunten*Ferath Kherif*
Affiliation:
- Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l’Age Avance (SUPAA), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, 1008 Prilly-Lausanne,Switzerland
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie (LREN), Departement des Neurosciences Cliniques, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Universite de Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne,Switzerland
Keywords:
Personality, Non-cognitive factors, Depression, Anxiety, Cognition, Neurobiology, Alzheimer's disease.
Abstract: The multifaceted nature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
can lead to wide inter-individual differences in disease manifestation in terms of brain pathology and
cognition. The lack of understanding of phenotypic diversity in AD arises from a difficulty in understanding
the integration of different levels of network organization (i.e. genes, neurons, synapses, anatomical
regions, functions) and in inclusion of other information such as neuropsychiatric characteristics,
personal history, information regarding general health or subjective cognitive complaints in a coherent
model. Non-cognitive factors, such as personality traits and behavioral and psychiatric symptoms,
can be informative markers of early disease stage. It is known that personality can affect cognition and
behavioral symptoms. The aim of the paper is to review the different types of interactions existing between
personality, depression/anxiety, and cognition and cognitive disorders at behavioral and
brain/genetic levels.