Mismatch negativity as a potential neurobiological marker of early-stage Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) are serious, irreversible forms of cognitive impairment, which means that an early diagnosis is essential to slow down their progression. One potential neurophysiological biomarker of these diseases is the mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potentials (ERP) component, which reflects an automatic detection mechanism at the pre-attentive stages of information processing. We evaluated the auditory MMN response in individuals from two patient groups: those in the prodromal stages of AD (P-AD) and those in the prodromal stages of VD (P-VD). Thirty patients (15 P-AD patients and 15 P-VD patients) and 30 age-matched controls were recruited to undergo electrophysiological recordings during the presentation of an auditory deviant-standard-reverse oddball paradigm that was used to elicit genuine MMN responses. We show that over the frontal-central area, the mean amplitude of the MMN was significantly reduced in both the P-AD (p=0.017) and P-VD groups (p=0.013) compared with controls. The MMN peak latency in P-VD patients was significantly shorter than in controls (p=0.027). No MMN response differences between the P-AD and P-VD were found in either the frontal-central or the temporal areas. These results indicate that P-AD and P-VD patients exhibit impaired pre-attentive information processing mechanisms as revealed by the frontal-central area MMN response, which is associated with sensory memory and cognitive deficits.
Department of Medical Psychology, Public Health Institute of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China; Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
Shixiang
S
Jiang
Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
Chang
C
Yan
Department of Medical Psychology, Public Health Institute of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
Zhengxue
Z
Qiao
Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
Haiqian
H
Yao
Department of pain, Harbin Tiantai Hospital, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
Shiquan
S
Jiang
Department of Medical Psychology, Public Health Institute of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
Xiaohui
X
Qiu
Department of Medical Psychology, Public Health Institute of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China.
Xiuxian
X
Yang
Northwestern University, IL, USA.
Deyu
D
Fang
Department of Medical Psychology, Public Health Institute of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China. Electronic address: yanjie1965@163.com.
Yanjie
Y
Yang
Department of Neurology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China. Electronic address: limeizhang1313@126.com.
Limei
L
Zhang
Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China. Electronic address: wangln6@126.com.
Lina
L
Wang
Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China. Electronic address: zfx001@yahoo.com.
Liming
L
Zhang
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged
Alzheimer's disease; Event-related potential; Mild cognitive impairment; Mismatch negativity; Vascular dementia