Inter- and intra-hemispheric EEG coherence in patients with mild cognitive impairment at rest and during working memory task

Objective: To assess functional relationship by calculating inter- and intra-hemispheric electroencephalography (EEG) coherence at rest and during a working memory task of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: The sample consisted of 69 subjects: 35 patients (n=17 males, n=18 females; 52~71 years old) and 34 normal controls (n=17 males, n=17 females; 51~63 years old). Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) of two groups revealed that the scores of MCI patients did not differ significantly from those of normal controls (P>0.05). In EEG recording, subjects were performed at rest and during working memory task. EEG signals from F3-F4, C3-C4, P3-P4, T5-T6 and O1-O2 electrode pairs are resulted from the inter-hemispheric action, and EEG signals from F3-C3, F4-C4, C3-P3, C4-P4, P3-O1, P4-O2, T5-C3, T6-C4, T5-P3 and T6-P4 electrode pairs are resulted from the intra-hemispheric action for delta (1.0~3.5 Hz), theta (4.0~7.5 Hz), alpha-1 (8.0~10.0 Hz), alpha-2 (10.5~13.0 Hz), beta-1 (13.5~18.0 Hz) and beta-2 (18.5~30.0 Hz) frequency bands. The influence of inter- and intra-hemispheric coherence on EEG activity with eyes closed was examined using fast Fourier transformation from the 16 sampled channels. Results: During working memory tasks, the inter- and intra-hemispheric EEG coherences in all bands were significantly higher in the MCI group in comparison with those in the control group (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in inter- and intra-hemispheric EEG coherences between two groups at rest. Conclusion: Experimental results comprise evidence that MCI patients have higher degree of functional connectivity between hemispheres and in hemispheres during working condition. It suggests that MCI may be associated with compensatory processes during working memory tasks between hemispheres and in hemispheres. Moreover, failure of normal cortical connections may exist in MCI patients

Alpha spectral power and coherence in the patients with mild cognitive impairment during a three-level working memory task*

Objective: The functional relationship between calculated alpha band spectral power and inter-/intra-hemispheric coherence during a three-level working memory task of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) was investigated. Methods: Subjects included 35 MCI patients according to the DSM-IV criteria (mean age: 62.3, SD: 6.5) and 34 healthy controls (mean age: 57.4, SD: 4.0) were selected from the community at large. All subjects performed a simple calculation and recall task with three levels of working memory load while electroencephalograph (EEG) signal was recorded. The spectral EEG power was computed over alpha1 (8.0~10.0 Hz) and alpha2 (10.5~13.0 Hz) frequency bands and was compared between rest stage and working memory processing stage by two-way ANOVA. Post hoc testing analyzed the differences between each two levels of working memory load during task processing. The inter-hemisphere EEG coherence of frontal (F3-F4), central (C3-C4), parietal (P3-P4), temporal (T5-T6) as well as occipital (O1-O2) was compared between MCI patients and normal controls. The EEG signals from F3-C3, F4-C4, C3-P3, C4-P4, P3-O1, P4-O2, T5-C3, T6-C4, T5-P3 and T6-P4 electrode pairs resulted from the intra-hemispheric action for alpha1 and alpha2 frequency bands. Result: There was significantly higher EEG power from MCI patients than from normal controls both at rest and during working memory processing. Significant differences existed between rest condition and three-level working memory tasks (P<0.001). The inter- and intra-hemispheric coherence during working memory tasks showed a “drop to rise” tendency compared to that at rest condition. There was significantly higher coherence in MCI patients than in the controls. When task difficulties increased, the cortical connectivity of intra-hemispheric diminished while the inter-hemispheric connectivity dominantly maintained the cognitive processing in MCI patients. Conclusion: The results of the present study indicate that the alpha frequency band may be the characteristic band in distinguishing MCI patients from normal controls during working memory tasks. MCI patients exhibit greater inter-hemispheric connectivity than intra-hemispheric connectivity when memory demands increase. MCI patients mobilize a compensatory mechanism to maintain the processing effectiveness while the processing efficiency is reduced