(Asthana Supplemental WLS Study) Administrative Supplemental for the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study’s Project Tracking Dementia in the Sample

This administrative supplement to our existing grant (R01AG060737), which is tracking the onset of dementia in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) is a feasibility study with the long-term goal of addressing key substantive and methodological gaps in AD research. The results will help us better understand the role of a key social determinant, educational attainment, in the resilience against AD. We pay particular attention to differentiating the role of additional schooling –from early life cognitive functioning and genetic endowments. This aim is only currently achievable with the WLS. Methodologically, we aim to test the replicability of novel findings that specific blood-based biomarkers (i.e., A?42/A?40 ratio, t-tau, p-tau181, NFL) may predict amyloidosis and neurodegeneration. The WLS’s randomly selected community based sample—with its unusually high response rates—provides an ideal platform for replication. Existing work raises key concerns as to the reliability of findings on the progression of AD in convenience samples (Gleason 2019; Chen et al. 2017) collected from specialty clinics.