About this Research Topic

Background

Early detection of neurocognitive disorder allows for timely treatment, involvement in treatment discovery research, psychosocial support, and engagement in shared decision-making in regard to financial and health care planning. Along the spectrum from normal cognition to dementia, evidence continues to accumulate with respect to detection, monitoring, and staging. The early changes in cognition, behavior and functional status are observed years before clinical diagnosis of dementia. Biomarker studies have been able to identify neurocognitive disorders decades before clinical symptoms. There is ample evidence to suggest that the effective treatment of neurocognitive disorders will have to target the pathology in its preclinical stages. This research area presents an opportunity to advance the existing knowledge, addressing research gaps and proposing specific questions for future research.
Much of the research has focused on Alzheimer’s disease which is the most common cause of dementia worldwide. However, vascular dementia, Lewy Body diseases, frontotemporal dementia, etc. are also significant public health challenges in the geriatric population. There is a significant need to address the identification and management of the early stages of neurocognitive disorders.

The goal of this Research Topic is to address the following areas:
- Clinical features (cognitive and behavioral) of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
- Biomarkers of preclinical neurocognitive disorders, SCD, and MCI
- Genotype and phenotype correlations in different neurocognitive disorders
- Risk factors for neurocognitive disorders and their modifiers
- Cognitive phenotypes of different neurocognitive disorders
- Markers of progression of neurocognitive disorders
- Diagnostic and treatment guidelines

This list is not exhaustive and manuscripts related to this broad research area will also be considered. This Research Topic will welcome original research, reviews, meta-analyses, and commentaries.

Keywords: Preclinical dementia, subjective cognitive decline, mild cognitive impairment, biomarkers, Clinical phenotypes

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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