ERP biomarkers for go/no-go tasks to detect potential cognitive impairment in community-dwelling older adults

With an aging population, detecting cognitive dysfunction at an early stage is important. However, no current neurophysiological assessments examine brain activity status in community-dwelling older adults. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize event-related potential (ERP) during go/no-go tasks in older adults with potential cognitive impairment living in the community. The participants were 34 young adults and 46 older adults. They underwent a go/no-go task to measure ERP. The older adults were divided into two groups for analysis based on the results of the Japanese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA-J): cognitively normal and cognitively impaired. N2 latency was significantly delayed in the cognitively impaired group compared to the cognitively normal and younger groups. Furthermore, the younger group exhibited a significant increase in P3 amplitude and shorter latency compared to both older adult groups. The results of the correlation analysis between ERP and neuropsychological test scores showed that N2 latency correlated with neuropsychological test scores. The results also suggested that receiver operating characteristic curve analysis can measure cognitive function. These results indicated that N2 latency reflected potential cognitive dysfunction in community-dwelling older adults. Furthermore, P3 amplitude may be useful in detecting age-related inhibitory function decline.