EXPANDING THE BRIEF ASSESSMENT OF COGNITION (BAC-APP) FOR ASSESSMENT OF COGNITION IN AGING: INITIAL FINDINGS FROM AN ONGOING NORMATIVE STUDY: 2017 Abstract Supplement

The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) is a pen-and-paper cognitive assessment used in hundreds of research studies and clinical trials. A tablet-based version of the BACS, the BAC App, has been developed to allow standardized presentation of task instructions and stimuli, audio-recording of responses, and automatized scoring and data management. To extend use of the BAC App for assessment of cognition in aging and early detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (MCI-AD), additional tests of episodic verbal memory and visuospatial working memory were developed and incorporated. Collection of census-matched normative data in 750 healthy individuals is currently underway. We describe preliminary findings comparing performance of young (<55) and older (≥55) healthy adults, as well as performance of individuals with subjective cognitive complaints. Tasks were designed in compliance with guidance for objective psychometric tests (Ferris et al., 1997) and to enable tablet-assisted administration, automatic scoring, and data management in compliance with 21 CRF Part 11 requirements. Data currently includes 143 participants, including 63 healthy young adults (YA, <55 years), 76 healthy older adults (OA, ≥55 years), and 4 individuals with cognitive complaints. Participants with cognitive complaints were classified as such based on total scores of ≥ 4 on the Mail-In Function Cognitive Screening Instrument (MCSFI). Means and standard deviations are presented for YAs, OAs and cognitive complainers. OAs underperformed YAs on BAC App endpoints including verbal learning, verbal fluency, symbol coding, and token motor test (p