Decreased Parietal Beta Power as a Sign of Disease Progression in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Electroencephalography (EEG) power has previously been used to compare mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients who progress to Alzheimer's disease (pMCI) with patients with MCI who remain stable (sMCI) by using beta power. However, the beta band is very broad and smaller frequency bands may improve accuracy.

Objective: In the present study, we wanted to investigate whether it was possible to find any differences between pMCI and sMCI using relative power and whether these differences were correlated to cognitive function or neuropathology markers.

Methods: 17 patients with AD, 27 patients with MCI, and 38 older healthy controls were recruited from two memory clinics and followed for three years. EEGs were recorded at baseline for all participants and relative power was calculated. All participants underwent adjusted batteries of standardized cognitive tests and lumbar puncture.

Results: We found that pMCI showed decreased baseline relative power in the parietal electrodes in the beta1 band (13-17.99 Hz). At 2-year follow-up, we found changes in all baseline beta bands but most pronounced in the beta1 band. In addition, we found that qEEG parietal power was correlated with amyloid-β42 and anterograde memory.

Conclusion: These findings suggests that relative power in the parietal electrodes in the beta1 band may be a better way to discriminate between pMCI and sMCI at the time of diagnosis than the broad beta band. Similar findings have also been found with resting state fMRI. In addition, we found that anterograde memory was correlated to qEEG parietal beta1 power.