Apolipoprotein E gene variability and cognitive functions at age 79: A follow-up of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932

Apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype is a possible influence on nonpathological cognitive aging. The authors studied 462 community-dwelling, 79-year-old people born in 1921, whose childhood IQ had been assessed in the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 (Scottish Council for Research in Education, 1933). Adjusting for sex, childhood IQ, and self-reported illnesses, the authors found that those with an APOE epsilon4 allele had significantly lower Wechsler Logical Memory (D. Wechsler, 1987) scores than those without an epsilon4 allele. Those people with APOE epsilon2/epsilon3 genotypes had significantly higher Wechsler Logical Memory scores than epsilon3/epsilon3, who were significantly higher than epsilon3/epsilon4. Neither nonverbal reasoning nor verbal fluency were affected. In this sample, APOE genotype contributed to verbal memory in old age.