Personality Traits are Related to Selective Cognitive Impairment in Early Alzheimer's Disease

Background A link between personality traits and cognitive performance has been shown in normal adults and elderly individuals. Very few studies have evaluated this link in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Objective To better understand cognitive performance as regards to personality traits, our study was aimed to evaluate the role of premorbid personality on cognitive functioning in a population of patients presenting prodromal or mild AD. Methods 181 elderly with prodromal or mild AD participated in a cross-sectional, prospective cohort study. The participants completed a personality inventory and a neuropsychological battery exploring memory, attention, executive function, language, and praxis. Cognitive performance were compared according to the level of each personality trait, using multivariate MANOVA models. Results A higher level of neuroticism was associated with lower performance at similarities test (D = 9.49, p = 0.003), delayed Free and Cued Selective Reminding test (D = 5.22, p = 0.02), and digit span score (D = 7.99, p = 0.006). A higher level of openness was related to better performance at similarities (D = 4.33, p = 0.04), letter fluency (D = 11.45, p = 0.001), and category fluency test (D = 5.85, p = 0.02). Neuroticism interfered negatively with cognitive functioning at the prodromal stage; the association between openness and cognitive function was observed at both prodromal and mild AD stage. Conclusion These results suggest that personality traits, in particular neuroticism and openness, modulate cognitive abilities in patients with early AD. These results encourage the development of stress management programs to prevent its negative effects on cognitive aging.