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The exposome of brain aging across 34 countries
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2026-04-03)
Agustina Legaz
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Sebastian Moguilner
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Pablo Barttfeld
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Jhosmary Cuadros Castro
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Dante Sebastián Galván Rial
Scopus© Citations 7 1
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Critical Review of the Methodological Shortcoming of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring and Cognitive Function Studies
(MDPI AG, 2025-03-06)
Shahab Haghayegh
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Ramon C. Hermida
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Michael H. Smolensky
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Mili Jimenez Gallardo
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Claudia Duran-Aniotz
<jats:p>Growing evidence suggests that abnormal diurnal blood pressure rhythms may be associated with many adverse health outcomes, including increased risk of cognitive impairment and dementia. This study evaluates methodological aspects of research on bidirectional associations between ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) patterns and cognitive function. By examining the 28 recent studies included in a recent systematic review on the association between ABPM patterns with cognitive function and risk of dementia, our review revealed several significant limitations in study design, sample characteristics, ABPM protocol, cognitive assessment, and data analysis. The major concerns include a lack of diversity in study populations with underrepresentation of Blacks and Latinos, a predominant focus on Alzheimer’s disease or all-cause dementia without distinguishing other dementia subtypes, different and not standardized measures of cognition or dementia, prevalent use of 24 h monitoring without considering the adaption effect, inconsistent definitions of dipping status, and ignorance of individual differences in timings of daily activities such as bed and awakening times. In addition, confounding variables such as class, dose, and timing of antihypertensive medication are inadequately controlled or considered. Further, longitudinal studies were scarce examining the bidirectional relationship between ABPM patterns and cognitive decline over time. Collectively, these deficiencies undermine the reliability and generalizability of current findings. Addressing these methodological challenges is crucial for a more comprehensive understanding of diurnal blood pressure rhythms in diverse populations and for developing an evidence-based guideline for ambulatory monitoring and control of blood pressure across the sleep-wake cycle to prevent cognitive decline and dementia.</jats:p>
2
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1278 Feasibility of 48-h Ambulatory BP Assessment in Latinos with Dementia
(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2025-05)
Mili Jimenez Gallardo
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Andrea Castillo Suárez
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Peng Li
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Ramon C Hermida
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Michael Smolensky
Abstract Introduction Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring encapsulates 24-h BP patterns across the sleep-wake cycle and provides a comprehensive assessment of BP regulation with certain features, such as sleep-time dipping, that can better predict health outcomes than traditional office BP measurements. However, 24-h BP patterns remain understudied in Latino populations, especially older adults. This pilot study investigated the feasibility of continuously ambulatory BP monitoring blood pressure with portable devices in Latinos with dementia. Methods Eight participants (4 with Alzheimer’s disease, 1 with Frontotemporal dementia, 3 controls; age range 45.8-80.3 years) from the ReDLat cohort (Multi-Partner Consortium to Expand Dementia Research in Latin America) were enrolled for a 48-h ambulatory BP assessment with hourly measurements using a portable arm-cuff device. Participants also answered six questions to evaluate: (1) device adaption, (2) measurement frequency tolerability, (3) study duration acceptability, (4) perceived value of the assessment, (5) willingness to perform the assessment again, and (6) likelihood of recommending the assessment to others. Results The study yielded high-quality recordings with minimal missing BP measurements (range: 0%-14.1%; mean: 8.9%). Device adaptation improved over time, with 75% (6/8) reporting better tolerance on the second day and 25% (2/8) reporting consistently good tolerance across both days. All participants reported that hourly BP measurement was tolerable, and majority (7/8, 87.5%) found 48-h monitoring acceptable. Seven participants (87.5%) believed that the assessment was valuable, were willing to participate again, and likely recommend to others the assessment. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that 48-hour ambulatory BP monitoring is feasible and well-tolerated among older Latino adults with mild to moderate dementia in Latin American settings. Further feasibility testing should be performed in large samples and other populations, including individuals at later stages of dementia and in different countries.
4
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Comprehensive Analysis of Genetic Contributions to Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia in Admixed Latin American Populations
(Wiley, 2024-12)
Juliana Acosta‐Uribe
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Stefanie Danielle Pina Escudero
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J. Nicholas Cochran
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Jared W Taylor
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Caroline Warly Solsberg
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Most research initiatives have emerged from high‐income countries (HIC), leaving a gap in understanding the disease’s genetic basis in diverse populations like those in Latin American countries (LAC). ReDLat tackles this gap, focusing on LAC’s unique genetics and socioeconomic factors to identify specific Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) risk factors in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Method</jats:title><jats:p>We employed a comprehensive genetic analysis approach, integrating Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), Exome Sequencing, and SNP arrays to understand the cohort’s unique genetic architecture. We conducted ancestry analysis and searched for disease‐causing variants with mendelian inheritance, genome‐wide association studies (GWAS), rare variant enrichment, and evaluation of Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>We recruited and genotyped an initial cohort of 1046 participants with AD, 423 with FTD, and 855 healthy controls (HC) between 2020 and 2023. Analysis is ongoing, and we expect to sequence ∼600 additional samples in the coming months. Ancestry analysis revealed tri‐continental admixture, except for Brazil, which showed an additional Asian component (Figure 1). Top candidate gene rare variant enrichment associations (SKAT p < 0.05) were <jats:italic>TREM2</jats:italic> for FTD and <jats:italic>ABCA7</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>ABCA1</jats:italic> for AD. GWAS identified a robust association with the <jats:italic>APOE</jats:italic> locus on chromosome 19 in AD vs. HC.. We tested an AD PRS developed in European populations by Bellenguez et al (2020). on our cohort using 83 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms.. The PRS modestly distinguishes between all patients and HC (p = 2.4 × 10^‐12), AD vs. HC (p = 2.2 × 10^‐12), and even FTD vs. HC (p = 4.3 × 10^‐5), albeit with modest separation between groups, as expected for its application in a genetically admixed population.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>Our findings represent a pivotal step in understanding the genetic landscape of AD and FTD in admixed populations. They underscore the importance of including diverse populations in genetic research, paving the way for future studies. These findings have the potential to inform more personalized approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in diverse global populations, as well as identify novel targets for therapeutic development.</jats:p></jats:sec>
3
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Heterogeneous factors influence social cognition across diverse settings in brain health and age-related diseases
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2024-01-02)
Sol Fittipaldi
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Agustina Legaz
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Marcelo Maito
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Hernan Hernandez
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Florencia Altschuler
Aging diminishes social cognition, and changes in this capacity can indicate brain diseases. However, the relative contribution of age, diagnosis and brain reserve to social cognition, especially among older adults and in global settings, remains unclear when considering other factors. Here, using a computational approach, we combined predictors of social cognition from a diverse sample of 1,063 older adults across nine countries. Emotion recognition, mentalizing and overall social cognition were predicted via support vector regressions from various factors, including diagnosis (subjective cognitive complaints, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease and behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia), demographics, cognition/executive function, brain reserve and motion artifacts from functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings. Higher cognitive/executive functions and education ranked among the top predictors, outweighing age, diagnosis and brain reserve. Network connectivity did not show predictive values. The results challenge traditional interpretations of age-related decline, patient–control differences and brain associations of social cognition, emphasizing the importance of heterogeneous factors.
Scopus© Citations 31 1
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Author Correction: The BrainLat project, a multimodal neuroimaging dataset of neurodegeneration from underrepresented backgrounds
(2024)
Pavel Prado
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Vicente Medel
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Raul Gonzalez-Gomez
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Agustín Sainz-Ballesteros
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Victor Vidal
Scopus© Citations 1 1
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Automated free speech analysis reveals distinct markers of Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia
(2024)
Pamela Lopes da Cunha
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Fabián Ruiz
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Franco Ferrante
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Lucas Federico Sterpin
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Agustín Ibáñez
<jats:p>Dementia can disrupt how people experience and describe events as well as their own role in them. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) compromises the processing of entities expressed by nouns, while behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) entails a depersonalized perspective with increased third-person references. Yet, no study has examined whether these patterns can be captured in connected speech via natural language processing tools. To tackle such gaps, we asked 96 participants (32 AD patients, 32 bvFTD patients, 32 healthy controls) to narrate a typical day of their lives and calculated the proportion of nouns, verbs, and first- or third-person markers (via part-of-speech and morphological tagging). We also extracted objective properties (frequency, phonological neighborhood, length, semantic variability) from each content word. In our main study (with 21 AD patients, 21 bvFTD patients, and 21 healthy controls), we used inferential statistics and machine learning for group-level and subject-level discrimination. The above linguistic features were correlated with patients’ scores in tests of general cognitive status and executive functions. We found that, compared with HCs, (i) AD (but not bvFTD) patients produced significantly fewer nouns, (ii) bvFTD (but not AD) patients used significantly more third-person markers, and (iii) both patient groups produced more frequent words. Machine learning analyses showed that these features identified individuals with AD and bvFTD (AUC = 0.71). A generalizability test, with a model trained on the entire main study sample and tested on hold-out samples (11 AD patients, 11 bvFTD patients, 11 healthy controls), showed even better performance, with AUCs of 0.76 and 0.83 for AD and bvFTD, respectively. No linguistic feature was significantly correlated with cognitive test scores in either patient group. These results suggest that specific cognitive traits of each disorder can be captured automatically in connected speech, favoring interpretability for enhanced syndrome characterization, diagnosis, and monitoring.</jats:p>
2Scopus© Citations 22
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Advancements in dementia research, diagnostics, and care in Latin America: Highlights from the 2023 Alzheimer's Association International conference satellite symposium in Mexico City
(2024)
Ana Luisa Sosa
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Sonia MD Brucki
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Lucia Crivelli
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Francisco Javier Lopera
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Daisy M Acosta
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>INTRODUCTION</jats:title><jats:p>While Latin America (LatAm) is facing an increasing burden of dementia due to the rapid aging of the population, it remains underrepresented in dementia research, diagnostics, and care.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>METHODS</jats:title><jats:p>In 2023, the Alzheimer's Association hosted its eighth satellite symposium in Mexico, highlighting emerging dementia research, priorities, and challenges within LatAm.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>RESULTS</jats:title><jats:p>Significant initiatives in the region, including intracountry support, showcased their efforts in fostering national and international collaborations; genetic studies unveiled the unique genetic admixture in LatAm; researchers conducting emerging clinical trials discussed ongoing culturally specific interventions; and the urgent need to harmonize practices and studies, improve diagnosis and care, and use affordable biomarkers in the region was highlighted.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>DISCUSSION</jats:title><jats:p>The myriad of topics discussed at the 2023 AAIC satellite symposium highlighted the growing research efforts in LatAm, providing valuable insights into dementia biology, genetics, epidemiology, treatment, and care.</jats:p></jats:sec>
Scopus© Citations 6 1
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The BrainLat project, a multimodal neuroimaging dataset of neurodegeneration from underrepresented backgrounds
(2023)
Pavel Prado
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Vicente Medel
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Raul Gonzalez-Gomez
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Agustín Sainz-Ballesteros
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Victor Vidal
The Latin American Brain Health Institute (BrainLat) has released a unique multimodal neuroimaging dataset of 780 participants from Latin American. The dataset includes 530 patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and 250 healthy controls (HCs). This dataset (62.7 ± 9.5 years, age range 21–89 years) was collected through a multicentric effort across five Latin American countries to address the need for affordable, scalable, and available biomarkers in regions with larger inequities. The BrainLat is the first regional collection of clinical and cognitive assessments, anatomical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), and high density resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) in dementia patients. In addition, it includes demographic information about harmonized recruitment and assessment protocols. The dataset is publicly available to encourage further research and development of tools and health applications for neurodegeneration based on multimodal neuroimaging, promoting the assessment of regional variability and inclusion of underrepresented participants in research.
30Scopus© Citations 22
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Multivariate word properties in fluency tasks reveal markers of Alzheimer's dementia
(2023)
Franco J. Ferrante
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Joaquín Migeot
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Agustina Birba
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Lucía Amoruso
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Gonzalo Pérez
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>INTRODUCTION</jats:title><jats:p>Verbal fluency tasks are common in Alzheimer's disease (AD) assessments. Yet, standard valid response counts fail to reveal disease‐specific semantic memory patterns. Here, we leveraged automated word‐property analysis to capture neurocognitive markers of AD vis‐à‐vis behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>METHODS</jats:title><jats:p>Patients and healthy controls completed two fluency tasks. We counted valid responses and computed each word's frequency, granularity, neighborhood, length, familiarity, and imageability. These features were used for group‐level discrimination, patient‐level identification, and correlations with executive and neural (magnetic resonanance imaging [MRI], functional MRI [fMRI], electroencephalography [EEG]) patterns.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>RESULTS</jats:title><jats:p>Valid responses revealed deficits in both disorders. Conversely, frequency, granularity, and neighborhood yielded robust group‐ and subject‐level discrimination only in AD, also predicting executive outcomes. Disease‐specific cortical thickness patterns were predicted by frequency in both disorders. Default‐mode and salience network hypoconnectivity, and EEG beta hypoconnectivity, were predicted by frequency and granularity only in AD.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>DISCUSSION</jats:title><jats:p>Word‐property analysis of fluency can boost AD characterization and diagnosis.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Highlights</jats:title><jats:p><jats:list list-type="bullet"> <jats:list-item><jats:p>We report novel word‐property analyses of verbal fluency in AD and bvFTD.</jats:p></jats:list-item> <jats:list-item><jats:p>Standard valid response counts captured deficits and brain patterns in both groups.</jats:p></jats:list-item> <jats:list-item><jats:p>Specific word properties (e.g., frequency, granularity) were altered only in AD.</jats:p></jats:list-item> <jats:list-item><jats:p>Such properties predicted cognitive and neural (MRI, fMRI, EEG) patterns in AD.</jats:p></jats:list-item> <jats:list-item><jats:p>Word‐property analysis of fluency can boost AD characterization and diagnosis.</jats:p></jats:list-item> </jats:list></jats:p></jats:sec>
3Scopus© Citations 10

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