A – 3 Measuring Methods of Executive Ability from Trail Making Test Part B in Mexicans with Alzheimer’s Disease

Objective We investigated three different measures of executive ability derived from the Trail Making Test part B (TMT-B) in Mexicans with and without Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Method Ninety-one participants were divided into three groups: healthy comparison (HC), people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and people with AD. Every participant completed both TMT part A (TMT-A) and TMT-B, and the Aprendizaje de Palabras (AP) from the Bateria Neuropsichogica en Espanol. Executive measures included the TMT-B raw score (i.e., seconds to complete TMT-B), the raw score difference (in seconds) between TMT-A and TMT-B (TMT-BA), and the difference between a predicted TMT-B score (TMT-BP) and the obtained TMT-B score (TMT-BBP). Correlations between TMT-B, TMT-BA, and TMT-BBP and verbal memory abilities via AP were evaluated. Results All three measures derived from TMT-B for the HC group significantly correlated with one or more verbal memory tasks except short-delay free recall (r’s = -.78 to -.43, p’s < .05). Meanwhile, all three measures derived from TMT-B for the MCI group significantly correlated with one or more verbal memory tasks (r’s = -.78 to -.43, p’s < .05). Lastly, all three measures derived from TMT-B for the AD group significantly correlated with one or more from three verbal memory tasks (i.e., total learning, long-delay free recall, & recognition; r’s = -.66 to -.42, p’s < .05). Conclusion TMT-BBP measure correlated with more verbal memory measures compared to the other two executive ability measures. Suggesting that TMT-BBP is likely a better measure to predict verbal memory abilities in Mexicans with and without AD.