Early warning for elderly individuals at high risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), using sensitive and non-invasive neurological indicators, is essential for the early prevention of Alzheimer's disease. A recent study published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease by researchers at the University of Kentucky has found what they believe to be a new method for predicting these risks years before clinical diagnosis.
Their research demonstrates that direct measurements of brain indicators during mental activity are more sensitive and accurate in predicting memory decline than the standard behavioral tests currently in use. The lead researcher, Yang Jiang, an associate professor in behavioral sciences and a faculty member at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, stated: "Many studies have measured physiological electrical rhythms during rest and sleep to predict the risk of Alzheimer's disease in the elderly. This study shows that better predictions of a person's cognitive risks can be made when the brain is challenged by performing a task. Additionally, we learned during the study that the measures of brainwave fluctuation and waves from the left frontal lobe during so-called working memory tasks are good indicators of the risk of dementia."
According to the study, when looking for a specific car in a large parking lot, elderly individuals make more mistakes and take longer than younger people due to brain aging and cognitive issues. Jiang noted that it has already been reported that brain waves associated with such daily memory tasks differ in cognitively healthy elderly individuals from those in patients suffering from memory loss and dementia. Moreover, researchers followed healthy elderly individuals for ten years and observed that a specific pattern of frontal brain waves during daily memory tasks predicts the person's risk of cognitive decline nearly five years before the clinical diagnosis of this cognitive condition. This pattern was not observed in cognitively healthy elderly individuals over the following ten years. Jiang emphasized that predicting and preventing cognitive decline is critically important to allow for preventive measures, such as lifestyle changes, and to help researchers improve the quality of life for rapidly aging seniors.
He added: "Compared to current methods that use neuroimaging as biomarkers, this measurement method can be easily performed in clinics, is non-invasive, quick, and also cost-effective." It is worth noting that this clinical study was a collaborative scientific effort with multiple investigators from the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, including co-authors Erin Abner, Richard Kryscio, Greg Gatcha, Fred Schmidt, and Charles Smith, along with collaborators from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the University of Tennessee, the Institute of Psychology in China, and the University of Kentucky.
