Neurophysiological Changes in Mild Cognitive Impairment

描述(申请人提供)：该项目的长期目标是了解阿尔茨海默病临床症状出现之前大脑和认知功能的变化。轻度认知障碍(MCI)是一个诊断术语，描述了患有孤立的间歇性记忆缺陷的老年人，这种记忆缺陷通常是正常衰老和阿尔茨海默病(AD)之间的过渡状态。因此，对MCI的研究提供了对阿尔茨海默病普遍认知缺陷出现之前大脑和认知功能变化的洞察。神经病理学研究表明，新皮质的神经病理程度可能是MCI和AD之间的关键区别。拟议的实验将使用心理学和神经生理学方法评估MCI的新皮质功能，方法是(1)评估被认为反映新皮质功能的基本认知过程，以及(2)使用非侵入性事件相关电位直接测量皮质电位。 具体目的是：(1)检验基本认知功能(加工速度、注意力)在MCI中受损的假设，(2)检验MCI中前额叶皮质和感觉皮质之间的相互作用受到损害的假设，以及(3)采用纵向研究设计，确定大脑活动和行为测量是否可以预测个体MCI受试者随后转向AD的可能性。 拟议中的实验很重要，因为它们将促进我们对阿尔茨海默病发展过程中大脑和认知变化的理解。实验结果也可能对确定个别MCI患者从MCI转变为阿尔茨海默病的风险具有临床应用价值，并可能提供治疗效果的客观衡量标准。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this project is to understand the changes in brain and cognitive function that take place before the onset of the clinical symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a diagnostic term describing elderly individuals with an isolated episodic memory deficit that is often a transition state between normal aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Thus, the study of MCI offers insight into the changes in brain and cognitive function that occur before the widespread cognitive deficits of Alzheimer's disease are present. Neuropathological studies suggest that the degree of neuropathology in the neo-cortex is likely to be a critical difference between MCI and AD. The proposed experiments will evaluate neo-cortical function in MCI using psychological and neurophysiological methods by (1) assessing basic cognitive processes thought to reflect neo-cortical function, and (2) measuring cortical potentials directly, using non-invasive event-related potentials. The Specific Aims are: (1) to test the hypothesis that elementary cognitive functions (processing speed, attention) are impaired in MCI, (2) to test the hypothesis that cortical interactions between prefrontal cortex and sensory cortices are compromised in MCI, and (3) to determine if brain activity and behavioral measures can predict subsequent conversion to AD in individual MCI subjects, using a longitudinal study design. The proposed experiments are important because they will advance our understanding of the brain and cognitive changes that accompany the development of Alzheimer's disease. Experimental findings may also have clinical applications for determining the risk of conversion from MCI to Alzheimer's disease in individual MCI patients, and could provide objective measures of treatment efficacy.