Evoked and event related coherence of Alzheimer patients manifest differentiation of sensory–cognitive networks

• Published in: Brain research 2010-10, Vol.1357, p.79-90
• Main Authors: Başar, Erol, Güntekin, Bahar, Tülay, Elif, Yener, Görsev G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Alzheimer; Alzheimer Disease - physiopathology; Alzheimer's disease; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Brain oscillation; Brain Waves - physiology; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Cholinergic; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Electroencephalography; Event related coherence; Evoked coherence; Evoked Potentials - physiology; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Neurology; Oddball paradigm; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Photic Stimulation; Prospective Studies; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0006-8993; 1872-6240
• DOI: 10.1016/j.brainres.2010.08.054

Abstract In previous studies on Alzheimer's patients it was shown that, in frontal and parietal locations, delta and theta responses of AD patients were greatly reduced. The present study analyzed coherence functions in these highly affected frontal and parietal areas. Visual sensory and event related coherences of patients with Alzheimer type dementia (AD) were analyzed comparatively. A total of 38 mild, probable AD subjects (19 untreated, 19 treated with cholinesterase inhibitors) were compared with a group of 19 healthy controls. The sensory evoked coherence and event related target coherences were analyzed for delta (1–3.5 Hz), theta (4–7 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (15–30 Hz) and gamma (28–48 Hz) frequency ranges for long-range intra-hemispheric (F3 –P3 , F4 –P4 , F3 –T5 , F4 –T6 , F3 –O1 , F4 –O2 ) electrode pairs. The healthy control group showed significantly higher values of event related coherence in “ delta ”, “ theta ” and “ alpha ” bands in comparison to the de novo and medicated AD groups (p < 0.01 for the delta, theta and alpha) upon application of a target stimuli. In contrast, almost no changes in event related coherences were observed in beta and gamma frequency bands. Furthermore, no differences were recorded between healthy and AD groups upon application of simple light stimuli. Besides this, coherence values upon application of target stimuli were higher than sensory evoked coherence in all groups and in all frequency bands (p < 0.01). The cognitive networks of AD patients were highly impaired in comparison to networks activated by sensory stimulation, thus showing separate activation of sensory and cognitive networks.