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A Systematic Review Of Cognitive Event-Related Potentials In Mild Cognitive Impairment And Alzheimer’S Disease, Elizabeth Rose Paitel, Marielle R. Samii, Kristy A. Nielson

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

This systematic review examined whether event-related potentials (ERPs) during higher cognitive processing can detect subtle, early signs of neurodegenerative disease. Original, empirical studies retrieved from PsycINFO and PubMed were reviewed if they analyzed patterns in cognitive ERPs (≥150 ms post-stimulus) differentiating mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), or cognitively intact elders who carry AD risk through the Apolipoprotein-E ε4 allele (ε4+) from healthy older adult controls (HC). The 100 studies meeting inclusion criteria (MCI = 47; AD = 47; ε4+ = 6) analyzed N200, P300, N400, and occasionally, later components. While there was variability across studies, patterns of reduced …

Hippocampal Functional Connectivity And Memory Performance After Exercise Intervention In Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment, Junyeon Won, Daniel D. Callow, Gabriel S. Pena, Leslie S. Jordan, Naomi A. Arnold-Nedimala, Kristy A. Nielson, J. Carson Smith

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Background:

Exercise training (ET) has neuroprotective effects in the hippocampus, a key brain region for memory that is vulnerable to age-related dysfunction.

Objective:

We investigated the effects of ET on functional connectivity (FC) of the hippocampus in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and a cognitively normal (CN) control group. We also assessed whether the ET-induced changes in hippocampal FC (Δhippocampal-FC) are associated with changes in memory task performance (Δmemory performance).

Methods:

32 older adults (77.0±7.6 years; 16 MCI and 16 CN) participated in the present study. Cardiorespiratory fitness tests, memory tasks (Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) and …

Motor Timing Intraindividual Variability In Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment And Cognitively Intact Elders At Genetic Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease, Christina D. Kay, Michael Seidenberg, Sally Durgerian, Kristy A. Nielson, J. Carson Smith, John L. Woodard, Stephen M. Rao

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction: Intraindividual variability (IIV) in motor performance has been shown to predict future cognitive decline. The apolipoprotein E-epsilon 4 (APOE-ε4) allele is also a well-established risk factor for memory decline. Here, we present novel findings examining the influence of the APOE-ε4 allele on the performance of asymptomatic healthy elders in comparison to individuals with amnestic MCI (aMCI) on a fine motor synchronization, paced finger-tapping task (PFTT).

Method: Two Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk groups, individuals with aMCI (n = 24) and cognitively intact APOE-ε4 carriers (n = 41), and a control group consisting of cognitively intact APOE-ε4 noncarriers ( …

Comparison Of Semantic And Episodic Memory Bold Fmri Activation In Predicting Cognitive Decline In Older Adults, Nathan Hantke, Kristy A. Nielson, John L. Woodard, Leslie M. Guidotti Breting, Alissa Butts, Michael Seidenberg, J. Carson Smith, Sally Durgerian, Melissa A. Lancaster, Monica Matthews, Michael Sugarman, Stephen M. Rao

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Previous studies suggest that task-activated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can predict future cognitive decline among healthy older adults. The present fMRI study examined the relative sensitivity of semantic memory (SM) versus episodic memory (EM) activation tasks for predicting cognitive decline. Seventy-eight cognitively intact elders underwent neuropsychological testing at entry and after an 18-month interval, with participants classified as cognitively “Stable” or “Declining” based on ≥1.0 SD decline in performance. Baseline fMRI scanning involved SM (famous name discrimination) and EM (name recognition) tasks. SM and EM fMRI activation, along with Apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 status, served as predictors of cognitive …

Semantic Memory Activation In Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, John L. Woodard, Michael Seidenberg, Kristy A. Nielson, Piero Antuono, Leslie Guidotti, Sally Durgerian, Qi Zhang, Melissa A. Lancaster, Nathan Hantke, Alissa Butts, Stephen M. Rao

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Cognitively intact older individuals at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease frequently show increased functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain activation presumably associated with compensatory recruitment, whereas mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients tend not to show increased activation presumably due to reduced neural reserve. Previous studies, however, have typically used episodic memory activation tasks, placing MCI participants at a performance disadvantage relative to healthy elders. In this event-related fMRI study, we employed a low effort, high accuracy semantic memory task to determine if increased activation of memory circuits is preserved in amnestic MCI when task performance is controlled. Fifty-seven participants, aged …