title: A cognitive electrophysiological signature differentiates amnestic mild cognitive impairment from normal aging.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Noninvasive and effective biomarkers for early detection of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) before measurable changes in behavioral performance remain scarce. Cognitive event-related potentials (ERPs) measure synchronized synaptic neural activity associated with a cognitive event. Loss of synapses is a hallmark of the neuropathology of early Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that ERP responses during working memory retrieval discriminate aMCI from cognitively normal controls (NC) matched in age and education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighteen NC, 17 subjects with aMCI, and 13 subjects with AD performed a delayed match-to-sample task specially designed not only to be easy enough for impaired participants to complete but also to generate comparable performance between subjects with NC and those with aMCI. Scalp electroencephalography, memory accuracy, and reaction times were measured.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Whereas memory performance separated the AD group from the others, the performance of NC and subjects with aMCI was similar. In contrast, left frontal cognitive ERP patterns differentiated subjects with aMCI from NC. Enhanced P3 responses at left frontal sites were associated with nonmatching relative to matching stimuli during working memory tasks in patients with aMCI and AD, but not in NC. The accuracy of discriminating aMCI from NC was 85% by using left frontal match/nonmatch effect combined with nonmatch reaction time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The left frontal cognitive ERP indicator holds promise as a sensitive, simple, affordable, and noninvasive biomarker for detection of early cognitive impairment.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China. lijuan@psych.ac.cn.|Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA. lijuan@psych.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Lucas S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Broster
authors.affiliation: Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Jicha
authors.affiliation: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Munro
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Frederick A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.affiliation: Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Department of Epidemiology, University of Kentucky College of Public Health, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Abner
authors.affiliation: Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Department of Statistics, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Department of Biostatistics, University of Kentucky College of Public Health, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kryscio
authors.affiliation: Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.|Department of Neurology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA.
authors.forename: Charles D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Science, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA. yjiang@uky.edu.|Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40536, USA. yjiang@uky.edu.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004522:Educational Status; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Amnestic mild cognitive impairment; Early detection; Event-related potentials; Working memory