A method to combine cognitive and neurophysiological assessments of the elderly.
BACKGROUND
The development of better treatments for brain diseases of the elderly will necessitate more sensitive and efficient means of repeatedly assessing an individual's neurocognitive status.


OBJECTIVE
To illustrate the development of an assessment combining episodic memory and working memory tasks with simultaneous electroencephalography and evoked potential (EP) brain function measures.


METHODS
Data from matched groups of elderly subjects with mildly impaired episodic verbal memory on neuropsychological tests and those with no objective signs of impairment were used for scale development. An exploratory multivariate divergence analysis selected task performance and neurophysiological variables that best recognized impairment. Discriminant validity was then initially assessed on separate impaired and unimpaired groups.


RESULTS
Decreased response accuracy and parietal late positive component EP amplitude in the episodic memory task best characterized impaired subjects. Sensitivity in recognizing impairment in the validation analysis was 89% with 79% specificity (area under the curve = 0.94). Retest reliability was 0.89 for the unimpaired and 0.74 for the impaired validation groups.


CONCLUSIONS
These promising initial results suggest that with further refinement and testing, an assessment combining cognitive task performance with simultaneous neurofunctional measures could eventually provide an important benefit for clinicians and researchers.
San Francisco Brain Research Institute and SAM Technology, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA. alan@sfbri.org
Alan
A
Gevins
Aaron B
AB
Ilan
An
A
Jiang
Cynthia S
CS
Chan
Deborah
D
Gelinas
Michael E
ME
Smith
Linda K
LK
McEvoy
Emilie
E
Schwager
Mayra
M
Padilla
Zachary
Z
Davis
Kimford J
KJ
Meador
James
J
Patterson
Ruth
R
O'Hara
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D004522:Educational Status; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult