Cognition in healthy aging, ages 36 to 108: Associations with dementia risk factors and neurodegenerative disease biomarkers

In the Aging Adult Brain Connectome cohort (N = 1,396; ages 36–108), five modifiable dementia risk factors were linked to cognitive performance (FDR q < 0.05) but not to subsequent decline.

• Why it matters: Evidence from older or clinical samples leaves how dementia risk factors relate to normal cognitive aging unclear, especially whether they affect baseline performance or later decline.
• What they did: The study tested eighteen risk factors against three cognitive outcomes, separating performance at a given age from rate of subsequent decline, and related plasma ADRD biomarkers to cognition.
• The result: Plasma ADRD markers related to cognition from age 65 onward but not before, and were linked to faster decline most consistently with pTau217 positivity (PACC, 0.058 SD per year, p < 0.001), implying emerging Alzheimer’s pathology tracks decline.