# Study of Cognitive Symptoms and Future Time Perspective in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2021 · $157,110

## Abstract

I'm a clinical psychologist and researcher, Penn Memory Center Scholar, and instructor in the Division of
Geriatric Medicine at University of Pennsylvania. I joined the Penn Project on Precision Medicine for the Brain
(P3MB) in late 2015 to study the promising advances being made in the diagnosis and treatment Alzheimer's
disease (AD). Researchers posit a stage of AD called “preclinical AD,” defined as a condition in which
individuals are cognitively unimpaired but have biomarker evidence of AD. In the future, persons with
preclinical AD will be prescribed therapies and other interventions to delay or slow the disease progression. I
study the experiences of AD research participants across the continuum of cognitive decline from unimpaired
to moderately cognitively impaired in order to understand what types of psychological care may be needed to
support the translation of this model of AD dementia prevention into routine practice. I propose to study two
features central to the experience of living with preclinical AD: Subjective Cognitive Complaints (SCCs) and
Future Time Perspective (FTP).
 To do this, I will examine how a person's knowledge of their AD biomarker result, specifically an
amyloid PET scan result, affects their SCCs and FTP, b) interacts with reports of SCCs and measures of AD
pathology, and c) how longitudinal changes in FTP affect decision-making. Findings from this study will show
how SCCs and FTP behave in the preclinical AD experience. This is important to know, as clinicians and
researchers can measure them, and they can affect how people assess their wellbeing and make decisions
such as whether or not to take medication or participate in other health-related interventions. SCCs
currently
(stage
individual's
been
are
used to classify stage 2 of preclinical AD, which is a distinct transitional stage between asymptomatic
1) and mildly impaired (stage 3). FTP predicts n
decision-making, such as health and financial planning behaviors, but these associations have not
studied in individuals with preclinical AD. The studies that propose will
FTP is a measure of one's sense of time remaining. a
I inform how FTP is affected by
learning an AD biomarker result and how this impacts decision-making. Discovering how SCCs and FTP
behave in the preclinical AD experience will assure successful translation of Preclinical AD and the model of
prevention in AD that it will accompany from research into practice, which is my long-term goal.
 To accomplish my overall objective, I propose a 5-year K award to support (i) training to develop as a
PI and to develop knowledge of AD biomarkers, research methods, and clinical care, and (ii) building a
research program that will develop an evidenced-based model to guide psychological care in Preclinical AD. I
have a multidisciplinary team of mentors selected for their mentoring track record and expertise in AD imaging
biomarkers, disclosure of AD biomarker results, and decision-making. This plan will give m...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10260381
- **Project number:** 5K23AG065442-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Shana D. Stites
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $157,110
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10260381

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10260381, Study of Cognitive Symptoms and Future Time Perspective in Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease (5K23AG065442-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10260381. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*