Inhibitory Control of Saccadic Eye Movements and Cognitive Impairment in Mild Cognitive Impairment
Julius Opwonya1,2, Changwon Wang1, Kyoung-Mi Jang3
1Digital Health Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
Background:
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may occur due to several forms of neurodegenerative diseases and non-degenerative conditions and is associated with cognitive impairment that does not affect everyday activities. For a timely diagnosis of MCI to prevent progression to dementia, a screening tool of fast, low-cost and easy access is needed. Recent research on eye movement hints it a potential application for the MCI screening. However, the precise extent of cognitive function decline and eye-movement control alterations in patients with MCI is still unclear.
Objective:
This study examined executive control deficits and saccade behavioral changes in patients with MCI using comprehensive neuropsychological assessment and interleaved saccade paradigms.
Methods:
Patients with MCI (n = 79) and age-matched cognitively healthy controls (HC) (n = 170) completed four saccadic eye-movement paradigms: prosaccade (PS)/antisaccade (AS), Go/No-go, and a battery of neuropsychological tests.
Results:
The findings revealed significantly longer latency in patients with MCI than in HC during the PS task. Additionally, patients with MCI had a lower proportion of correct responses and a marked increase in inhibition errors for both PS/AS and Go/No-go tasks. Furthermore, when patients with MCI made errors, they failed to self-correct many of these inhibition errors. In addition to the increase in inhibition errors and uncorrected inhibition errors, patients with MCI demonstrated a trend toward increased correction latencies. We also showed a relationship between neuropsychological scores and correct and error saccade responses.
Conclusion:
Our results demonstrate that, similar to patients with Alzheimer's dementia (AD), patients with MCI generate a high proportion of erroneous saccades toward the prepotent target and fail to self-correct many of these errors, which is consistent with an impairment of inhibitory control and error monitoring.
Significance:
The interleaved PS/AS and Go/No-go paradigms are sensitive and objective at detecting subtle cognitive deficits and saccade changes in MCI, indicating that these saccadic eye movement paradigms have clinical potential as a screening tool for MCI.
Insights
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is linked to executive control deficits and altered eye movements. Saccade paradigms show potential as a sensitive screening tool for MCI, aiding early diagnosis and preventing dementia progression.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Ophthalmology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) presents cognitive deficits not impacting daily activities but can progress to dementia.
- Early diagnosis of MCI is crucial for intervention, necessitating accessible screening tools.
- Eye movement analysis is an emerging area for MCI screening, though its specifics require clarification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate executive control deficits in MCI patients.
- To analyze saccade behavioral changes in MCI patients.
- To evaluate the utility of saccade paradigms for MCI screening.
Main Methods:
- Utilized comprehensive neuropsychological assessments.
- Employed interleaved saccade paradigms: prosaccade/antisaccade (PS/AS) and Go/No-go.
- Compared 79 MCI patients with 170 healthy controls (HC).
Main Results:
- MCI patients exhibited longer saccade latency and reduced accuracy compared to HC.
- Increased inhibition errors and a failure to self-correct errors were observed in MCI patients.
- A correlation was found between neuropsychological scores and saccade performance.
Conclusions:
- MCI is associated with impaired inhibitory control and error monitoring, evidenced by saccade errors.
- Saccade paradigms like PS/AS and Go/No-go are sensitive to subtle cognitive and eye movement changes in MCI.
- These eye movement paradigms hold clinical potential as objective MCI screening tools.
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