Researchers find potential cognitive benefits of major Alzheimer’s risk gene

Alzheimer's disease
Diagram of the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s Disease. Credit: Wikipedia/public domain.

A well-known gene that increases Alzheimer’s risk, called APOE4, has now been linked with better visual working memory in older adults, finds a new study led by University College London researchers.

The findings published in Nature Aging are based in study of a unique group of volunteers, who were all born in the same week in 1946.

Joint senior author Professor Jonathan Schott (Dementia Research Centre, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology) said, “We have long known that possession of an APOE4 risk gene increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease, but the exact mechanism…

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