Age- and disease-related features of task-related brain oscillations by using mutual information.

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in task-related brain oscillations and corticocortical connections in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and those with normal aging using cross-mutual information (CMI) analysis. We hypothesized that task-related brain oscillations and corticocortical connections were affected by age- and disease-related changes, which could be reflected in the CMI analysis. Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings were measured in 16 MCI patients, 15 healthy age-matched controls, and 16 healthy younger individuals. The frequencies and interhemispheric CMI data were estimated in all groups. The specific EEG rhythms measured were delta (δ), theta (θ), alpha (α), beta (ß), and gamma (γ) bands. Significant differences in δ, θ, α, and ß bands were observed between the younger and elderly groups. However, only the θ band was significantly different between the elderly and MCI groups. Moreover, this study used EEG recordings to investigate age- and disease-related changes in the corticocortical connections of the brain. This study proves that the θ-band frequency of the connection between the parietal and occipital lobes for the age- and disease-related changes can be depicted using the CMI analysis.