Date on Senior Honors Thesis

5-2025

Document Type

Senior Honors Thesis

Degree Name

B.S.

Department

Psychological and Brain Sciences

Degree Program

College of Arts and Sciences

Committee Chair

Benjamin Mast

Author's Keywords

Systematic literature review; biomarkers; PET imaging biomarkers; cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers; blood biomarkers; Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

Traditional detection of and treatment methods for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) undermine the critical period of preclinical AD, a pathogenic process that appears decades before clinical symptoms arise. In the preclinical stage, biomarkers stipulate the advent of pathogenic processes, providing a crucial framework to integrate early detection and intervention well before clinical symptoms become evident. I hypothesize that the presence of biomarkers is a crucial early indicator of changes in memory function in the preclinical stage of AD. To test this hypothesis, a systematic literature review will be applied to gauge biomarker detection in order to consider it as a potential predictive measure in treatment interventions.

Lay Summary

Envision this: You are trying to predict if a storm will occur before you even begin to see notable signs of dark clouds forming in the sky. You might inspect changes in factors such as temperature, humidity, and air pressure in order to estimate the probability of stormy weather long before the first raindrops begin to fall. In similar contexts, the “factors” that are correlated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are being researched by healthcare professionals before notable signs, such as memory loss, begin to show. The factors, known as biomarkers, are biological predictors of AD that are present in brain scans, cerebrospinal fluid, and blood tests.

Download

Share

COinS