Association of baseline semantic fluency and progression to mild cognitive impairment in middle-aged men.

Among individuals who were cognitively normal at wave 1, episodic memory moderately to strongly predicted progression to MCI at average age 62, emphasizing the fact that there is still meaningful variability even among cognitively normal individuals. Episodic memory, which is typically a primary focus for Alzheimer disease (AD) risk, declined earlier and more quickly than fluency. However, semantic fluency at average age 56 predicted 6-year change in memory as well as progression to amnestic MCI even after accounting for baseline memory performance. These findings emphasize the utility of memory and fluency measures in early identification of AD risk.