Visual Event-Related Potentials in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Cognitive deficits are correlated with increasing age and become more pronounced for people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Conventional methods to diagnose cognitive decline (i.e., neuropsychological testing and clinical judgment) can lead to false positives. Tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) offer more refined, objective measures that index electrophysiological changes associated with healthy aging, MCI, and AD. Objective: We sought to review the EEG literature to determine whether visual event-related potentials (ERPs) can distinguish between healthy aging, MCI, and AD. Method: We searched Medline and PyscInfo for articles published between January 2005 and April 2018. Articles were considered for review if they included participants aged 60+ who were healthy older adults or people with MCI and AD, and examined at least one visually elicited ERP component. Results: Our search revealed 880 records, of which 34 satisfied the inclusion criteria. All studies compared cognitive function between at least two of the three groups (healthy older adults, MCI, and AD). The most consistent findings related to the P100 and the P3b; while the P100 showed no differences between groups, the P3b showed declines in amplitude in MCI and AD. Conclusion: Visually elicited ERPs can offer insight into the cognitive processes that decline in MCI and AD. The P3b may be useful in identifying older adults who may develop MCI and AD, and more research should examine the sensitivity and specificity of this component when diagnosing MCI and AD.

APOE4 Status is Related to Differences in Memory-Related Brain Function in Asymptomatic Older Adults with Family History of Alzheimer’s Disease: Baseline Analysis of the PREVENT-AD Task Functional MRI Dataset

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A validation of Emotiv EPOC Flex saline for EEG and ERP research

“…As they covertly measure neural processes, EEG and ERP studies are particularly useful in populations for whom laboratory conditions may be inappropriate or untenable. For example both auditory and visual ERPs may be used to investigate cognitive processing in schizophrenia (Feuerriegel et al, 2015), dyslexia (McArthur, Atkinson & Ellis, 2009;Peter et al, 2019), autism (Kim et al, 2018;Schwartz, Shinn-Cunningham & Tager-Flusberg, 2018) or neurodegeneration (Morrison et al, 2019;Swords et al, 2018). This highlights three drawbacks of traditional EEG systems (e.g.…”

The P300 Event-Related Potential Component and Cognitive Impairment in Epilepsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

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