Electrophysiological Characteristics of Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients during Semantic Memory Process

Kanghee Lee; Ji Won Han; Subin Lee; Grace Eun Kim; Eunchan Na; Seung Wan Suh; Ki Woong Kim

doi:10.4306/jknpa.2019.58.4.353

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Lee, Han, Lee, Kim, Na, Suh, and Kim: Electrophysiological Characteristics of Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients during Semantic Memory Process

Original Article

Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association 2019; 58(4): 353-361.

Published online: 30 November 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4306/jknpa.2019.58.4.353

Electrophysiological Characteristics of Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients during Semantic Memory Process

Kanghee Lee, PhD¹, Ji Won Han, MD, PhD^1,², Subin Lee, BS³, Grace Eun Kim, BA³, Eunchan Na, MA^1,⁴, Seung Wan Suh, MD¹, Ki Woong Kim, MD, PhD^1,^2,³

¹Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seongnam, Korea.

²Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

³Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.

⁴Attachable Phototherapeutics Center for e-Healthcare, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea.

Address for correspondence: Ji Won Han, MD, PhD. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, 82 Gumi-ro 173beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam 13620, Korea. Tel +82-31-787-7438, Fax +82-31-787-4058, jwhanmd@snu.ac.kr

Received 31 July 2019 Revised 13 September 2019 Accepted 29 September 2019

Korean Neuropsychiatric Association

Abstract

Objectives

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients show decreased semantic memory-processing ability including that for naming objects. We examined event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with the semantic processing of MCI patients and compared their ERPs to those of cognitively normal elderly subjects.

Methods

A total of 25 MCI patients and 23 age-matched cognitively normal elderly controls (CN) participated in an object-word matching task that consisted of responding to whether a word stimulus matched the picture stimulus preceding it. There were three types of object-name pairs: 1) matched pair, 2) related but mismatched pair, and 3) unrelated mismatched pair. We compared the mean amplitude of ERPs to examine the mismatch effects between matched and mismatched pairs (N400M) and the category effect between inner category and outer category mismatched words (N400C) in CN and MCI patients.

Results

Compared to the CN subjects, the MCI patients showed a distinct N400M response to mismatch conditions, but the observed range was limited in the centroparietal area. While CN individuals showed a significantly larger N400C amplitude for unrelated mismatch pairs than those for related mismatch pairs, MCI patients exhibited no significant difference between those pair types.

Conclusion

The MCI showed a lack of the category effects in ERP responses, which may reflect latent behavioral impairments.

Keywords: Mild cognitive impairment, Semantic memory, ERP, N400

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

Behavioral performance of the OWMT. Accuracy (A) and reaction time (B) of the OWMT in MCI and CN groups. All error bar means standard error. ^: p<0.05, ^: p<0.01, ^: p<0.001. OWMT : Object-word matching task, CN : Cognitively normal, MCI : Mild cognitive impairment, MATCH : Matched pair, RELMIS : Related mismatched pair, UNRMIS : Unrelated mismatched pair, REMAT : Repeated matched.

Fig. 2

The grand-averaged event-related potential of RELMIS, UNRMIS and MATCH at right frontal and centroparietal areas (A) and the topographical distribution of mean amplitude's differences (µV) calculated by subtracting MATCH from RELMIS or UNRMIS (B) in MCI and CN groups. MATCH : Matched pair, RELMIS : Related mismatched pair, UNRMIS : Unrelated mismatched pair, MCI : Mild cognitive impairment, CN : Cognitively normal.

Table 1

Results of the repeated measures 4-way analysis of variance for N400M depends on the polarity and laterality of electrode locations and match-mismatch conditions in CN and MCI groups

^*: p<0.05, ^**: p<0.001. CN : Cognitively normal, MCI : Mild cognitive impairment

Table 2

The mean amplitudes (µV, standard deviation) of N400M depends on the polarity and laterality of electrode locations and match-mismatch conditions in CN and MCI groups

^*: p<0.05, ^**: p<0.01, ^***: p<0.001. CN : Cognitively normal, MCI : Mild cognitive impairment

Table 3

Results of the repeated measures 4-way analysis of variance for N400C depends on the polarity and laterality of electrode locations and category conditions (inner or out-category) in CN and MCI groups

^*: p<0.05, ^**: p<0.001. CN : Cognitively normal, MCI : Mild cognitive impairment

Table 4

The mean amplitudes (µV, standard deviation) of N400C depends on the polarity and laterality of electrode locations and category conditions (inner or out-category) in CN and MCI groups

^*: p<0.05, ^**: p<0.01. CN : Cognitively normal, MCI : Mild cognitive impairment

Notes

^{Conflicts of Interest} The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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