Trouble Managing Money Can Flag Dementia

A study published in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer's Disease suggests trouble managing money can be an early indicator of dementia and could be correlated to protein deposition in the brain, reports Futurity . "The more we can understand adults' financial decision-making capacity and how that may change with aging, the better we can inform society about those issues," said Duke University Professor P. Murali Doraiswamy. The researchers looked at 243 adults age 55 to 90 participating in the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, which evaluated financial skills and took brain scans to examine protein accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques. Specific financial skills were observed to decline with age and at the earliest stages of mild memory impairment, more or less equally in both sexes. After controlling for education and other demographics, more extensive amyloid plaques mirrored poorer understanding and application of basic financial concepts, or completing tasks like calculating an account balance. "Little is known about which brain circuits underlie the loss of financial skills in dementia," noted Doraiswamy. "Given the rise in dementia cases over the coming decades and their vulnerability to financial scams, this is an area of high priority for research."