The Weakened Relationship Between Prestimulus Alpha Oscillations and Response Time in Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Abstract

Background: Prestimulus alpha oscillations associated with preparatory attention have an impact on response time (RT). However, little is known about whether there is a deficit in the relationship between prestimulus alpha oscillations and RT in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Method: We collected electroencephalography (EEG) data from 28 older adults with MCI and 28 demographically matched healthy controls (HCs) when they were performing an Eriksen flanker task. For each participant, single-trial prestimulus alpha power was calculated for combinations of congruency (congruent vs. incongruent) and response speed (fast vs. slow). Result: Statistical analysis indicated that prestimulus alpha power was significantly lower for fast trials than slow trials in HCs but not in older adults with MCI. The Fisher's z scores of the within-subject correlation coefficients between single-trial prestimulus alpha power and RT were significantly larger in HCs than in older adults with MCI. In addition, machine learning analyses indicated that prestimulus alpha power and its correlation with RT could serve as features to distinguish older adults with MCI from HCs and to predict performance on some neuropsychological tests. Conclusion: The reduced correlation between prestimulus alpha activity and RT suggests that older adults with MCI experience impaired preparatory attention.

Neural Timing Deficits Prevalent in Developmental Disorders, Aging, and Concussions Remediated Rapidly By Movement Discrimination Exercises

“…These results validate the reported improvements in cognitive skills found previously [62] using robust neuropsychological tests. Since coupled alpha-gamma activity is reduced in older adults with mild cognitive impairments resulting from memory loss [68], the improvements found in this person's working memory provides more evidence PATH training improves both coupled alpha-gamma and theta-gamma activity. For both people, improvements in cognitive skills were measured using a battery of standardized tests before and after 8 weeks of PATH neurotraining twice a week for 15-20 minutes, providing more rigorous evidence than available previously.…”

“…These results show cognitive transfer to untrained tasks. Since coupled alpha-gamma activity is reduced in older adults with mild cognitive impairments [68], these improvements in working memory provide more evidence PATH training improves coupled alpha-gamma activity Following PATH neurotraining, this older adult's quality of life improved remarkably. She reported "My memory, reading speed, ease of understanding, processing speed, ability to multitask, concentrate, and pay attention have improved remarkably in just a few months.…”

Accounting for endogenous effects in decision-making with a non-linear diffusion decision model

“…The initial inertia relates directly to the brain activation needed to integrate sensory evidence. Petro et al (2019) and Chen et al (2020) have shown in human EEG studies that depending on the brain activity prior to stimulus presentation changed the speed of responses. More specifically, they showed that the more pre-activated the required sensory area, the faster the decision.…”

Oscillatory markers of neuroHIV-related cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease during attentional interference processing

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