The aim of this thesis was to investigate cardiovascular determinants of neurocognitive functioning in old age, in particular cognitive dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and apathy. First, we found... Show moreThe aim of this thesis was to investigate cardiovascular determinants of neurocognitive functioning in old age, in particular cognitive dysfunction, depressive symptoms, and apathy. First, we found that the Geriatric Depression Scale(GDS)-3A, the apathy sub set of the GDS-15, moderately discriminates between presence and absence of apathy, and can be used in large study populations to investigate associations with apathy. Next, we demonstrated that higher levels of high sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), a clinical cardiac biomarker, are related to accelerated cognitive decline, but not to apathy or depression.In the next chapters, we tested the hypothesis that in those older persons with more vascular brain damage, a lower rather than a higher blood pressure is related to worse neurocognitive function. Indeed, we found that only in those older persons with worse daily functioning and those with more cerebral small vessel disease, lower blood pressure was related to more symptoms of apathy. This pattern was not observed for depression or cognitive function.In conclusion, we found that cardiovascular risk factors are important for neurocognitive functioning in older persons. Moreover, we found that specific cardiovascular determinants, such as blood pressure and hs-cTnT, have different associations with apathy than with depression and cognitive function. Show less
