EEG fluctuations of wake and sleep in mild cognitive impairment

Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (aMCI), a condition in which the memory functions of cognition are significantly impaired, is an established risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a tool capable of measuring the dynamics of the brain's neural networks, and is thus an important means in analysis and understanding of aMCI. In this proof-of-concept study, we compared the brain activation patterns of ten aMCI subjects with those of four healthy subjects during sleep by employing a 64-channel EEG data collection system. The power spectrum was analyzed to identify sleep stages, while spectral topography and source imaging techniques were employed to study the fluctuating patterns of the brain. Results of this study show an increase in activation power across all sleep stages in the delta and theta frequency bands alongside a decrease in alpha band activity for aMCI subjects. Source imaging analysis of the resting EEG identified default mode network, which becomes decoupled as sleep stages deepen. In the proof-of-concept study, our exploratory analysis demonstrated the feasibility of imaging dynamic network organization using EEG in aMCI.