Reduced Frontal Activations at High Working Memory Load in Mild Cognitive Impairment: Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

The objective of the present study was to utilize near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), an alternative imaging technique, to examine neural processing during WM performance in individuals with MCI.Methods: Twenty-six older adults with MCI (7 males; mean age 69.15 years) were compared with 26 age-, gender-, handedness-, and education-matched older adults with normal cognition (NC; 7 males; mean age 68.87 years). All of the participants undertook ann-back task with a low (i.e., 0-back) and a high (i.e., 2-back) WM load condition while their prefrontal dynamics were recorded by a 16-channel NIRS system.Results: Although behavioral results showed that the two groups had comparable task performance, neuroimaging results showed that the MCI group, unlike the NC group, did not exhibit significantly increased frontal activations bilaterally when WM load increased. Compared to the NC group, the MCI group had similar frontal activations at low load (p> 0.05 on all channels) but reduced activations at high load (p

Source: Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders - October 26, 2016 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research