title: Promising Role of Neuromodulation in Predicting the Progression of Mild Cognitive Impairment to Dementia.
abstract: The differential diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is not always straightforward, and the rate of progression of MCI to dementia is not negligible. Thus, there is a need for para-clinical approaches that can improve the differential diagnosis and identify patients that are at risk of progression. There is a growing interest, at present, in the role of the deterioration of brain oscillations as a predictor of MCI-to-AD conversion. For this reason, we experimentally modulated γ-band oscillations (GBO) in a sample of MCI and AD patients and an age-matched healthy elderly group, using a transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) protocol that was applied to different cortical sites. We correlated the after-effects of tACS on the GBO and the neuropsychological data, in an attempt to differentiate MCI from AD patients and identify, among the MCI patients, those that could be at potential risk of MCI-to-dementia conversion. MCI patients showed a partial GBO increase and improvement in some neuropsychological tests whereas AD individuals did not show significant tACS after-effects. Notably, some MCI subjects lacked significant neuropsychological and electrophysiological after-effects, similar to AD individuals. In a two-year follow-up, such MCI individuals had converted into AD. Therefore, our data suggest that tACS may support the clinical differential diagnosis of MCI and AD and identify MCI patients who could be at risk of developing dementia. This prediction index may help the clinician to adopt a better prevention/follow-up strategy in such a disabling neurodegenerative disease.
authors.forename: Antonino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naro
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Corallo
authors.forename: Simona
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Salvo
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marra
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Lorenzo
authors.forename: Nunzio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Muscarà
authors.forename: Margherita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marino
authors.forename: Rosaria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Luca
authors.forename: Placido
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bramanti
authors.forename: Rocco Salvatore
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Calabrò
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D065818:Gamma Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D065908:Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; gamma-band oscillations; mild cognitive impairment; transcranial alternating current stimulation