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APOE ɛ4 constrains engagement of encoding‐related compensatory networks in amnestic mild cognitive impairment
Author(s) -
Prieto del Val Laura,
Cantero Jose L.,
Atienza Mercedes
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
hippocampus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.767
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1098-1063
pISSN - 1050-9631
DOI - 10.1002/hipo.22422
Subject(s) - psychology , neuroscience , episodic memory , temporal lobe , alpha (finance) , cognition , prefrontal cortex , beta (programming language) , cognitive psychology , audiology , developmental psychology , medicine , computer science , construct validity , epilepsy , psychometrics , programming language
People with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), compared to healthy older adults (HO), benefit less from semantic congruent cues during episodic encoding. The presence of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ɛ4 makes this congruency benefit smaller, but the neural correlates of this deficit are unknown. Here, we estimated the source generators of EEG oscillatory activity associated with successful encoding of face‐location associations preceded by semantically congruent and incongruent cues in HO ( N = 26) and aMCI subjects ( N = 34), 16 of which were ɛ4 carriers (ɛ4 + ) and 18 ɛ4 noncarriers (ɛ4 − ). Source estimation was performed in those spectrotemporal windows where the power of low‐alpha, high‐alpha, and beta oscillatory activity differed either between congruent and incongruent faces or between groups. Differences in high‐alpha and beta‐oscillatory dynamics indicated that aMCI ɛ4 + are unable to activate lateral regions of the temporal lobe involved in associative memory and congruency benefit in HO. Interestingly, and regardless of APOE genotype, aMCI activated additional regions relative to HO, through alpha oscillations. However, only activation in a distributed fronto‐temporo‐parietal network in ɛ4 noncarriers was paralleled by enhanced memory. On the contrary, the redundant prefrontal activation shown by aMCI ɛ4 + did not prevent performance from decreasing. These results indicate that the effect of aMCI‐related degeneracy on functional networks is constrained by the presence of APOE ɛ4. Whereas individuals with aMCI ɛ4 − activate attentional, perceptual and semantic compensatory networks, aMCI ɛ4 + show reduced processing efficiency and capacity. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.