Function In Mild Cognitive Impairment Research Articles

Impaired verb fluency: A sign of mild cognitive impairment

We assessed verb fluency vs. noun and letter-based fluency in 199 subjects referred for cognitive complaints including Subjective Cognitive Impairment, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. ANCOVAs and factor analyses identified verb, noun, and letter-based fluency as distinct tasks. Verb fluency performance in Mild Cognitive Impairment differed significantly from Subjective Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Reduced verb fluency thus appears to be a linguistic marker for incipient dementia. One possibility is that the verb fluency deficit in Mild Cognitive Impairment results from degenerative processes known to occur in the parahippocampal region.

Inhibition of hippocampal function in mild cognitive impairment: targeting the cholinergic hypothesis

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a condition with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Chief complaint and diagnostic criterion in subjects with mild cognitive impairment is memory failure. We hypothesized that cholinergic malfunction may underlie memory impairment in these subjects and applied a low dosage of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and modulator of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, galantamine (4 mg bid), for 7 days. We used neuropsychological tests to investigate attention, cognitive flexibility, verbal and visual short-term and working memory, susceptibility to interference and episodic memory and functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess spatial navigation both prior to and after treatment. Late episodic learning and delayed recall improved on treatment as did recruitment of the hippocampal region during spatial navigation. Performance in all other neuropsychological measures remained unchanged. We show that an increase of cholinergic neurotransmission in subjects with MCI specifically improves hippocampal function and thus that a cholinergic deficit is functionally relevant in subjects with MCI. Malfunction of the cholinergic system may be tackled pharmacologically via the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase even when the impairment is slight.

0735 The influence of cerebral white matter hyperintensity on cognitive function in mild cognitive impairment

0735 The influence of cerebral white matter hyperintensity on cognitive function in mild cognitive impairment

Memory Patterns and Executive Functioning in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

The present study examined the similarities in the pattern of cognitive loss in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). We administered a battery of neuropsychological tests to individuals with these disorders as well as to a group of cognitively intact controls. The battery included measures of memory acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval, as well as tests of language, visuospatial ability, psychomotor speed, and executive functioning. All subjects (N =62) were evaluated in a memory disorder clinic and were diagnosed by a consensus procedure. Multivariate and univariate statistical methods were used to examine differences in level of performance on all neuropsychological tests and in the pattern of performance for memory measures. We found a significant difference between controls and the MCI and AD groups in terms of consolidation, but not in acquisition or retrieval. The MCI and AD groups did not differ in the pattern of memory processing. Also, the only non-memory neurocognitive domain in which MCI group differed significantly from the control group was executive functioning. Our findings suggest that the pattern of loss of memory function of MCI patients parallels that of AD patients. Also, our finding that executive functioning was the only other neurocognitive domain in which the control and MCI groups differed significantly is in contrast to traditional clinical lore that implicates language dysfunction and/or visuospatial deficits early in AD. These findings provide preliminary evidence that consolidation deficits and subtle declines in executive functioning may be the most useful cognitive markers for the early direction of AD.