Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults
Abstract Although brain amyloid and tau deposition measured by PET scans are established as biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), they can emerge decades before symptoms are detectable on traditional neuropsychological (NP) tests. There is a pressing need for early AD detection tools that are more...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-04-01
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95852-8 |
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| author | Huitong Ding Chenglin Lyu Cody Karjadi Preeti Sunderaraman Christina B. Young Elizabeth C. Mormino Spencer Low Sherral Devine Katherine Gifford Rhoda Au Honghuang Lin |
| author_facet | Huitong Ding Chenglin Lyu Cody Karjadi Preeti Sunderaraman Christina B. Young Elizabeth C. Mormino Spencer Low Sherral Devine Katherine Gifford Rhoda Au Honghuang Lin |
| author_sort | Huitong Ding |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Although brain amyloid and tau deposition measured by PET scans are established as biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), they can emerge decades before symptoms are detectable on traditional neuropsychological (NP) tests. There is a pressing need for early AD detection tools that are more accessible, cost-effective, and non-invasive. The digital clock drawing test (dCDT), a digital version of the clock drawing test, has emerged as a promising cognitive assessment tool that takes minutes to administer and can reveal clinical symptoms earlier than paper–pencil NP tests. This study explored the association between 53 dCDT measures and amyloid and tau PET biomarkers using data from 87 low age risk participants in the Framingham Heart Study. Our findings revealed a significant association between a dCDT measure related to spatial reasoning function and global amyloid burden (P < 0.05), and 4 dCDT measures correlated with tau accumulation after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Notably, the combination of demographic variables and a composite dCDT score achieved a mean area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.86 in detecting amyloid positivity. These results highlight the potential of dCDT measures as effective predictors of amyloid and tau pathology in preclinical AD. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-54733027d13a41ceb0567d4ee2df5efb |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
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| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-54733027d13a41ceb0567d4ee2df5efb2025-08-20T03:04:49ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-04-011511810.1038/s41598-025-95852-8Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adultsHuitong Ding0Chenglin Lyu1Cody Karjadi2Preeti Sunderaraman3Christina B. Young4Elizabeth C. Mormino5Spencer Low6Sherral Devine7Katherine Gifford8Rhoda Au9Honghuang Lin10Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineDepartment of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineDepartment of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineThe Framingham Heart Study, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineDepartment of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of MedicineDepartment of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University School of MedicineDepartment of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineDepartment of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineDepartment of Neurology, Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, Vanderbilt University Medical CenterDepartment of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of MedicineDepartment of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical SchoolAbstract Although brain amyloid and tau deposition measured by PET scans are established as biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), they can emerge decades before symptoms are detectable on traditional neuropsychological (NP) tests. There is a pressing need for early AD detection tools that are more accessible, cost-effective, and non-invasive. The digital clock drawing test (dCDT), a digital version of the clock drawing test, has emerged as a promising cognitive assessment tool that takes minutes to administer and can reveal clinical symptoms earlier than paper–pencil NP tests. This study explored the association between 53 dCDT measures and amyloid and tau PET biomarkers using data from 87 low age risk participants in the Framingham Heart Study. Our findings revealed a significant association between a dCDT measure related to spatial reasoning function and global amyloid burden (P < 0.05), and 4 dCDT measures correlated with tau accumulation after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Notably, the combination of demographic variables and a composite dCDT score achieved a mean area under the receiver operating characteristics curve of 0.86 in detecting amyloid positivity. These results highlight the potential of dCDT measures as effective predictors of amyloid and tau pathology in preclinical AD.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95852-8Digital clock drawing testAmyloidTauPETAssociation |
| spellingShingle | Huitong Ding Chenglin Lyu Cody Karjadi Preeti Sunderaraman Christina B. Young Elizabeth C. Mormino Spencer Low Sherral Devine Katherine Gifford Rhoda Au Honghuang Lin Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults Scientific Reports Digital clock drawing test Amyloid Tau PET Association |
| title | Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults |
| title_full | Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults |
| title_fullStr | Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults |
| title_full_unstemmed | Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults |
| title_short | Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults |
| title_sort | association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau pet biomarkers in low age risk adults |
| topic | Digital clock drawing test Amyloid Tau PET Association |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95852-8 |
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