title: Apolipoprotein E and alpha brain rhythms in mild cognitive impairment: a multicentric electroencephalogram study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Relationships between the apolipoprotein E epsilon4 allele and electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythmicity have been demonstrated in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients but not in the preclinical stage prodromic to it, namely, mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The present multicentric EEG study tested the hypothesis that presence of epsilon4 affects sources of resting EEG rhythms in both MCI and AD subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled 89 MCI subjects (34.8% with epsilon4) and 103 AD patients (50.4% with epsilon4). Resting eyes-closed EEG data were recorded for all subjects. EEG rhythms of interest were delta (2-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha 1 (8-10.5 Hz), alpha 2 (10.5-13Hz), beta 1 (13-20 Hz), and beta 2 (20-30 Hz). EEG cortical sources were estimated by low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results showed that amplitude of alpha 1 and 2 sources in occipital, temporal, and limbic areas was lower in subjects carrying the epsilon4 allele than in those not carrying the epsilon4 allele (p < 0.01). This was true for both MCI and AD. For the first time to our knowledge, a relationship was shown between ApoE genotype and global neurophysiological phenotype (ie, cortical alpha rhythmicity) in a preclinical AD condition, MCI, in addition to clinically manifest AD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Such a demonstration motivates future genotype-EEG phenotype studies for the early prediction of AD conversion in individual MCI subjects.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Farmacologia, Universitá La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. claudio.babiloni@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Babiloni
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Benussi
authors.forename: Giuliano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Binetti
authors.forename: Emanuele
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cassetta
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dal Forno
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Del Percio
authors.forename: Florinda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferreri
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferri
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Frisoni
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ghidoni
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Miniussi
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: Gian Luca
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Romani
authors.forename: Rosanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Squitti
authors.forename: Maria Carla
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ventriglia
authors.forename: Paolo M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Rossini
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000483:Alleles; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001057:Apolipoproteins E / Q000235:genetics*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D001057:Apolipoproteins E