Implementation of a Brain Training Pilot Study For People With Mild Cognitive Impairment.

OBJECTIVE: A pilot study to determine the feasibility of recruiting patients with MCI to test for cognitive interventions. METHOD: Thirty patients with amnestic MCI were to be divided into two intervention arms and one control group. Participants went to local sites and completed brain training for one hour three times per week for nine weeks. Outcome measures were: recruitment, computer abilities, compliance, task performance, neuropsychological tests, and electroencephalography. RESULTS: After six months, only 20 participants had been recruited. Seventeen were allocated to one of the two intervention groups. Compliance was good and computer skills were not an obstacle. Participants improved their abilities in the modules, but there were no statistically significant changes on neuropsychological tests or EEG. CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment of MCI participants for extensive cognitive intervention is challenging, but achievable. This pilot study was not powered to detect clinical changes. Future trials should consider recruitment criteria, intervention duration, scheduling, and study location.

Event-related potentials elicited during working memory are altered in mild cognitive impairment.

Persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) can experience deficits in working memory. In the present study, we investigated working memory in persons with MCI and cognitively healthy older adults using event-related potentials (ERPs). Participants performed an n-back working memory task with baseline (0-back), low load (1-back), and high load (2-back) working memory conditions. MCI participants' performance was less accurate than that of healthy older adults in both the 1-back and 2-back conditions, and reaction times were longer in MCI than control participants in the 0-back, 1-back and 2-back conditions. ERP analyses revealed delayed P200 and N200 latencies and smaller P300 amplitudes in MCI relative to control participants in the 0-back, 1-back and 2-back conditions. Deterioration in working memory performance concomitant with marked electrophysiological alterations suggests that persons with MCI exhibit deficits in several cognitive processes that include early attention, stimulus discrimination and classification, and updating and manipulation of information held in working memory.

P300 amplitude alterations during inhibitory control in persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Deficits in executive function are highly noticeable in Alzheimer's disease, and recent behavioral studies have shown that such deficits - particularly during inhibitory control - can also be found in persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of inhibitory control in persons with MCI. A group of persons with MCI and a group healthy older adults performed a Go/NoGo task while electroencephalogram was recorded. Our results revealed that persons with MCI performed less accurately than healthy controls during the Go and NoGo conditions. In addition, we found reduced P300 amplitudes during Go and NoGo conditions relative to healthy older adults. Our results suggest that neurocognitive mechanisms associated with target detection and evaluation (Go P300) and response inhibition (NoGo P300) are compromised in persons with MCI.