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Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2026
July 12-15, 2026 | London, United Kingdom, and Online
2305
Association Between Spatial Navigation Performance And Inflammatory Markers In Cognitively Normal Adults
Poster Presenter
Authors
Catherine Chiao, Xiaowei Zhuang, Taylor Levine, Emily Post, MayaRae Mugosa, Aryan Shah, Jefferson Kinney, Jessica Caldwell
Affiliations
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Part of Topic
•Spatial navigation (SN) performance is associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and clinical progression.
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•There is increasing evidence that inflammation contributes to neurodegeneration and represents an early AD marker. Sex differences are well-established in other disorders with an inflammatory component.
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•Rodent literature has observed associations between spatial memory and inflammation.
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•This pilot study aims to explore associations between SN ability and inflammatory markers in cognitively normal adults.
•Participants: Cognitively normal participants from the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement and Prevention Center at Cleveland Clinic and the Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience. See Sample Characteristics.
•Spatial Navigation: Participants completed three four-minute learning trials where they were allowed to freely explore a computerized virtual environment. After a 15-minute delay, participants were instructed to find goal locations within the learned environment (six test-trials). Spatial navigation ability was operationalized by z-score composites of time and distance taken to reach the goal location.
•Inflammatory Markers: Plasma tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin 6 (IL-6) and interleukin 1β (IL-1β) are pro-inflammatory cytokines highlighted as potential AD biomarkers and screened using Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine 48-Plex Screening Panel.
•Pearson correlations were used to examine the association between inflammatory markers and cognitive measures. If significant, models were corrected for age. Sex differences were examined using t-tests.
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•No significant correlations were observed between neuroinflammation and SN.
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•When stratified by sex, males showed trend-level positive correlations between IL-6 and SN (SN-Time r=.63, p=.07; SN-Distance r=.64, p=.06).
•No other sex-specific associations were found.
•This study did not demonstrate associations between spatial memory and inflammatory markers, inconsistent with rodent literature.
•Exploratory analyses suggested a male-specific association between IL-6 and SN.
•The current study is a pilot and subsequently underpowered. Future research would benefit from continued data collection.
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•Examination of other plasma biomarkers or inflammatory markers (e.g., ptau217, IL-8).
Catherinechiao1@gmail.com
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