# Task-specific and person-specific factors related to Subjective Cognitive Decline

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $400,000

## Abstract

In the field of cognitive aging, there is an urgent push to identify the markers of pre-clinical
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in order to move pharmacologic intervention earlier in the disease
spectrum to a time when it can be most effective. There is growing interest in subjective
cognitive decline (SCD) as a potential marker of pre-clinical AD. SCD, or the perception that
one’s cognition has declined despite “normal” performance on standard diagnostic testing, is an
important health outcome that is concerning to many older adults, and leads some to seek
medical attention. Determining the extent to which SCD may serve as a pre-clinical marker of
AD is of great value, as SCD is non-invasive, inexpensive, and easily obtainable. However,
SCD is a complex, multi-factorial construct. In order to determine its true utility as a marker of
pre-clinical AD, it is critical to comprehensively characterize the factors that influence SCD, and
that affect the degree to which SCD reflects “true” or actual cognitive functioning. Indeed, SCD
is certain to reflect not only a person’s actual cognitive functioning, but also task-specific factors
(i.e., how SCD is measured) and person-specific factors (e.g., how good one is at self-
evaluation; how old one feels; what one believes about aging). The goals of this longitudinal
proposal are to examine novel task-specific and person-specific factors that are likely to
influence SCD and/or its association with actual (objectively measured) cognition in 200 older
adults. A key aspect of the proposed study is the inclusion of sensitive, objective cognitive
outcomes that will enable a more precise examination of the association between SCD and
objective cognition than has been conducted thus far. The first objective cognitive outcome is
performance on a visual short term memory (STM) binding task shown to be highly sensitive
and specific to AD pathology when standard neuropsychological testing is within normal limits.
We will also examine attentional control as a measure of non-memory changes that may signal
early AD before memory changes are apparent in some individuals. A final critical outcome is
cognitive change over time, enabling examination of subtle decline in cognition that may occur
when individuals still perform within the normal range on cross-sectional testing. Taken
together, these aims embody key issues recently identified by the SCD Working Group (2014)
as critical for advancing the current state of knowledge on SCD, and will contribute to a novel
model of SCD. Results from the proposed study will provide specific guidelines for how to
assess and interpret SCD in older adults, and will set the stage for determining how and when
SCD may be used as an indicator of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10172813
- **Project number:** 5R01AG054525-05
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** STEPHANIE Ann COSENTINO
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $400,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10172813

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10172813, Task-specific and person-specific factors related to Subjective Cognitive Decline (5R01AG054525-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10172813. Licensed CC0.

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