Cognitive and Brain Activity Changes After Mnemonic Strategy Training in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: Mnemonic strategy training (MST) has been shown to improve cognitive performance in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI), however, several questions remain unresolved. The goal of the present study was to replicate earlier pilot study findings using a randomized controlled design and to evaluate transfer effects and changes in brain activation.Methods: Thirty patients with a-MCI were randomized into MST or education program. At baseline, participants completed clinical and neuropsychological assessments as well as structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Interventions were administered individually and comprised four sessions, over 2 weeks. MST taught patients to use a three-step process to learn and recall face-name associations. Post-treatment assessment included fMRI, a separate face-name association task, neuropsychological tests, and measures of metamemory. Behavioral (i.e., non-fMRI) measures were repeated after one and 3-months.Results: Participants in the MST condition showed greater improvement on measures of face-name memory, and increased associative strategy use; effects that were accompanied by increased fMRI activation in the left anterior temporal lobe. While all participants reported greater contentment with their everyday memory following intervention, only the MST group reported significant improvements in their memory abilities. There was no clear indication of far-transfer effects to other neuropsychological tests.Conclusion: Results demonstrate that patients with a-MCI not only show stimulus specific benefits of MST, but that they appear capable of transferring training to at least some other cognitive tasks. MST also facilitated the use of brain regions that are involved in face processing, episodic and semantic memory, and social cognition, which are consonant with the cognitive processes engaged by training.

APOE4 Status is Related to Differences in Memory-Related Brain Function in Asymptomatic Older Adults with Family History of Alzheimer’s Disease: Baseline Analysis of the PREVENT-AD Task Functional MRI Dataset

“…These patterns may reflect a difference in approach taken by APOE4 carriers and non-carriers to complete the task. For example, mnemonic strategy training appears to improve performance on face-name associative memory tasks and further correlate with increased frontoparietal activity in older adults with amnesic mild cognitive impairment [89,90]. We did not assess strategy use in the present study and were therefore unable to test this possibility directly.…”

Effects of Mnemonic Strategy Training on Brain Activity and Cognitive Functioning of Left-Hemisphere Ischemic Stroke Patients

“…Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the behavior effects and the neural correlates of MST in patients with chronic stroke lesions in the left hemisphere using fMRI before and after the training. We replicated similar procedures from previous studies that showed effective MST during the associative encoding of face-name pairs in MCI patients [11–13] that was previously adapted for Brazilian population [12, 15].…”

“…Difficulties in recalling people's names can produce important impact on social interactions and communication. Previous studies in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a neurodegenerative condition, using face-name mnemonic strategy training (MST), showed significant behavior improvement associated with recruitment of widespread cerebral networks including the frontoparietal, inferior parietal cortex, temporal and fusiform gyri, angular gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [11, 12]. MCI training gains were evident on similar measures in the same trained cognitive domain (“near-transfer effect”) [12, 13].…”

“…Previous studies in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a neurodegenerative condition, using face-name mnemonic strategy training (MST), showed significant behavior improvement associated with recruitment of widespread cerebral networks including the frontoparietal, inferior parietal cortex, temporal and fusiform gyri, angular gyrus, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) [11, 12]. MCI training gains were evident on similar measures in the same trained cognitive domain (“near-transfer effect”) [12, 13]. In addition, there were some evidence of training benefits to other cognitive tasks (“far-transfer effects”) while patients referred more satisfaction and improvement with their memory after the training sessions [13].…”

APOE4 status is related to differences in memory-related brain function in asymptomatic older adults: Baseline analysis of the PREVENT-AD task fMRI dataset

“…These patterns may reflect a difference in approach taken by -APOE4 and +APOE4 individuals to complete the task. For example, mnemonic strategy training appears to improve performance on face-name associative memory tasks and further correlate with increased frontoparietal activity in older adults with amnesic mild cognitive impairment (Simon et al, 2018(Simon et al, , 2019). However, because task instructions did not direct participants to use any particular approach or strategy, and based on the lack of behavioral differences, this seems unlikely to explain the observed findings.…”