Mild cognitive impairment is associated with impaired visual-motor planning when visual stimuli and actions are...

This study examined cognitive-motor integration in adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Previously, we showed that the performance of early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients declined significantly as a visually-guided movement went from having a standard mapping (vision and action spatially aligned) to having a non-standard mapping (vision and action incongruent). The present study extends this line of research by examining the performance of individuals affected by MCI.

The participants made finger movements over a clear touchscreen placed in two separate spatial planes to either constantly present or remembered visual targets. These spatial plane conditions were repeated with the direction of cursor motion rotated 180° from that of hand motion. We also tested an 'arbitrary' condition where symbols instructed the participants to move their hand in certain directions.

We observe that adults with MCI took significantly longer to plan movements requiring intermediate levels of non-standard mapping, relative to healthy older adults.

These data suggest that movements requiring rule integration is affected even in individuals at a very early stage of cognitive decline. Cognitive-motor integration may provide a sensitive means to detect functional difficulty in early cognitive impairment.