Study of EEG power fluctuations enhanced by linguistic stimulus for cognitive decline screening

Abstract

Relative Electroencephalography (EEG) power can reflect cognitive decline and play a critical diagnostic role for dementia onset. The current paper investigates power changes in EEG channels on elderly people having Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) during a linguistic test. The main objective was to identify patterns in EEG power changes during a linguistically enriched cognitive assessment test which involved working memory abilities, selective attention and perception. Groups of MCI, demented and healthy controls were recruited to take part in an experiment. It was found that MCI and demented patients showed significantly different patterns in delta and theta frequency bands during the linguistic tasks. Results are valuable in the study of the way brain processes linguistic information in people with cognitive impairment and in screening assessment procedures.