The NIH toolbox emotion battery and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease: findings from the multisite ARMADA study

Kexin Yu, Jennifer R Gatchel, Emily H Ho, Ihab Hajjar, Steven E Arnold, Gad A Marshall and Hiroko H Dodge

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2026, vol. 81, issue 2, gbaf236.

Abstract: ObjectivesInvestigating the relationships between socioemotional functioning and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology can contribute to screening and early detection of AD. This study explored the associations between socioemotional functioning and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) AD biomarkers in older adults.MethodsWe used baseline data from the Advancing Reliable Measurement in Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Aging (ARMADA) study. ARMADA is a multisite study with independent protocols for CSF assays at each site. The available sample size with comparable CSF assays had 31 participants with normal cognition (NC, mean age 72.6) and 28 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) or early-stage AD dementia (mean age 72.2). CSF-derived AD biomarkers included were: phosphorylated-tau 181 (p-Tau181), total tau (t-Tau), Aβ42, Aβ42/40 ratio, and p-Tau181/Aβ42 ratio. Socioemotional functioning (negative affect, psychological well-being, and social satisfaction) was measured with the self-reported NIH Toolbox Emotion Battery (NIHTB-EB). We ran linear regressions by cognitive subgroups (NC and aMCI/early-stage AD).ResultsAmong participants with NC, lower social satisfaction was associated with higher p-Tau181 and t-Tau; higher t-Tau was additionally associated with more negative affect. None of the CSF AD biomarkers were associated with the NIHTB-EB outcomes among participants with aMCI or early-stage AD.DiscussionThese findings suggest that socioemotional functioning may be associated with tau pathology. Amyloid markers were not associated with socioemotional functioning in either cognitive group. Future studies with larger, more diverse samples and harmonized CSF assay protocols are needed to further investigate the role of socioemotional changes in the early detection and prevention of dementia.

Keywords: Tau pathology; Early detection; Early-stage Alzheimer’s disease; Amnestic mild cognitive impairment; Socioemotional functioning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbaf236 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:81:y:2026:i:2:p:gbaf236.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().