title: Altered Executive Function in Pre-Mild Cognitive Impairment.
abstract: For the early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is increasing interest in pre-mild cognitive impairment (pre-MCI).
  
  
  
  We explored the neuropsychological characteristics in a group of pre-MCI and cognitively normal (CN) elderly individuals, with the aim of providing measures sensitive to cognitive change in pre-MCI.
  
  
  
  We included 188 CN elderly and 77 individuals with pre-MCI. All participants underwent comprehensive clinical and neuropsychological assessment. We compared 17 cognitive tests between the CN and pre-MCI groups by using one-way ANOVAs with false discovery rate correction for multiple comparisons. Pearson's correlations were also obtained between episodic memory and executive function tests in the pre-MCI group.
  
  
  
  The pre-MCI group showed significantly lower scores for visual immediate recall, fluency tests, and Stroop color naming in the color-word incongruent condition than the CN group (p < 0.05). Most of these executive function measures were significantly correlated with episodic memory (p < 0.05). There were no significant group-differences in other tests assessing attention, verbal memory, visuospatial ability, and language.
  
  
  
  Our findings indicate that poor executive function especially demanding inhibition and goal-directed behaviors within time limit could be the characteristics of the very early cognitive sign in the course of AD.
authors: National Research Center for Dementia, Gwangju, Korea.|Premedical Science, College of Medicine, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea.
authors: Eun Hyun
authors: EH
authors: Seo
authors: National Research Center for Dementia, Gwangju, Korea.|Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Chosun University/Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju, Korea.
authors: Hoowon
authors: H
authors: Kim
authors: National Research Center for Dementia, Gwangju, Korea.|College of Natural Sciences, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea.
authors: Kun Ho
authors: KH
authors: Lee
authors: National Research Center for Dementia, Gwangju, Korea.|Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Chosun University/Chosun University Hospital, Gwangju, Korea.
authors: Il Han
authors: IH
authors: Choo
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; early detection; executive function; mild cognitive impairment