Affiliations: Laboratorio de Psicofisioloxía e Neurociencia Cognitiva, Facultade de Psicoloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Susana Cid-Fernández, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa de Xosé María Suárez Núñez, S/N, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Galiza, Spain. Tel.: +34 981 563 100; ext. 13732; E-mail: susana.cid@usc.es.
Abstract: Although many studies have demonstrated decline in attention and executive function (especially in inhibitory control) in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), similar studies concerning mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are scarce. In the present study, we evaluated how the cognitive decline associated with amnestic MCI (aMCI) affects these processes, analyzing the N2 and P3 components of event-related potentials (ERPs) during the response (Go) and inhibition of response (NoGo) to different stimuli. ERPs were analyzed in 63 healthy and 30 aMCI adults (aged 50 to 87 years) during performance of a Go/NoGo auditory-visual attention-distraction task. aMCI adults showed poorer execution (longer response times and fewer correct responses) and smaller Go-N2 and NoGo-N2 amplitudes than control adults, whereas P3 amplitudes and N2 and P3 latencies did not differ between the groups. These results show that aMCI is associated with decline in executive function and stimuli evaluation in working memory.
