Functional connectivity assessed by resting state EEG correlates with cognitive decline of Alzheimer's disease - An eLORETA study

Abstract

Objective: To explore neurophysiological biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease (AD), we investigated electroencephalography (EEG) of AD patients, and assessed lagged phase synchronization, a measure of brain functional connectivity.

Methods: Twenty-eight probable AD patients and 30 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled. Forty seconds of artifact-free EEG data were selected and compared between patients with AD and HC. Current source density (CSD) and lagged phase synchronization were analyzed by using eLORETA.

Results: Patients with AD showed significantly decreased lagged phase synchronization between most cortical regions in delta band relative to controls. There also was a decrease in lagged phase synchronization between the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the right posterior-inferior parietal lobule (pIPL) in theta band. In addition, some connections in delta band were found to be associated with cognitive function, measured by MMSE. This involved specifically interhemispheric temporal connections as well as left inferior parietal connectivity with the left hippocampus, lateral frontal regions, and the anterior cingulate cortex (aCC). Right temporal connections in delta band were related to global function, as estimated by CDR. No differences were found in CSD analysis between patients and HC.

Conclusions: Functional connectivity disruptions between certain brain regions, as measured with lagged phase synchronization, may potentially represent a neurophysiological biomarker of AD.

Significance: Our study indicated that AD and healthy elderly could have the different patterns of lagged phase synchronization.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; CDR (Clinical Dementia Rating); Dementia; EEG; Functional connectivity; LORETA; Lagged phase synchronization; MMSE (Mini-Mental State Examination).