Memory activation enhances EEG abnormality in mild cognitive impairment

This exploratory study investigated EEG power changes during memory activation in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Twelve MCI patients and 16 age-matched controls underwent EEG registration during two conventional EEG conditions (‘eyes closed’ and ‘eyes open’) and three memory conditions (‘word memory’, ‘picture memory’ and ‘animal fluency’). For all conditions, EEG power in the theta (4–8 Hz), lower alpha (8–10.5 Hz) and upper alpha (10.5–13 Hz) bands were expressed as percentile changes compared to ‘eyes closed’. MCI patients showed significantly less decrease in the lower alpha band than controls (p = 0.04) during picture memory activation. The word memory task showed a trend towards a similar effect (p = 0.09). This study suggests that memory activation reveals EEG differences between MCI patients and controls while conventional EEG conditions do not.