WHITE MATTER INTEGRITY AND PROSPECTIVE MEMORY PERFORMANCE IN MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT: PRELIMINARY STUDY

Abstract

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to execute delayed intentions. Prior studies have demonstrated that PM is impaired in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, whether prospective memory impairment would affect the neural health is unclear. In the current study, white matter (WM) integrity and self-reported PM measures were examined in 33 MCI patients (67.33 ± 8.33 years). WM integrity was analysed by voxel-wise Tract-Based Spatial Statistics using diffusion tensor imaging. The PM scale from the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) was used to assess PM performance. Worse PRMQ performance was associated with fractional anisotropy (FA) reduction in several regions like left caudal middle frontal WM, left precentral and postcentral WM, left internal capsule, left corona radiata, left external capsule, and left superior longitudinal fasciculus, but was associated with FA increase in areas such as right fusiform WM, right lateral occipital WM, middle cerebellar peduncle, brainstem, and right cerebellar WM (uncorrected p < .05, controlling for age and education). In addition, more PM fails were associated with higher FA in several regions like right fusiform WM, right lateral occipital WM, right pericalcarine WM, and left cuneus WM (uncorrected p < .05, controlling for age and education). These cross-sectional findings showing the relationship between more PM fails and higher FA in several WM regions might suggest a compensatory mechanism in the MCI patients. However, these results should be confirmed in larger samples.