Evoked and event related coherence of Alzheimer patients manifest differentiation of sensory–cognitive networks

In previous studies on Alzheimer's patients it was shown that, in frontal and parietal locations, delta and theta responses of AD patients were greatly reduced. The present study analyzed coherence functions in these highly affected frontal and parietal areas. Visual sensory and event related coherences of patients with Alzheimer type dementia (AD) were analyzed comparatively. A total of 38 mild, probable AD subjects (19 untreated, 19 treated with cholinesterase inhibitors) were compared with a group of 19 healthy controls. The sensory evoked coherence and event related target coherences were analyzed for delta (1–3.5 Hz), theta (4–7 Hz), alpha (8–13 Hz), beta (15–30 Hz) and gamma (28–48 Hz) frequency ranges for long-range intra-hemispheric (F3–P3, F4–P4, F3–T5, F4–T6, F3–O1, F4–O2) electrode pairs. The healthy control group showed significantly higher values of event related coherence in “delta”, “theta” and “alpha” bands in comparison to the de novo and medicated AD groups (p < 0.01 for the delta, theta and alpha) upon application of a target stimuli. In contrast, almost no changes in event related coherences were observed in beta and gamma frequency bands. Furthermore, no differences were recorded between healthy and AD groups upon application of simple light stimuli. Besides this, coherence values upon application of target stimuli were higher than sensory evoked coherence in all groups and in all frequency bands (p < 0.01). The cognitive networks of AD patients were highly impaired in comparison to networks activated by sensory stimulation, thus showing separate activation of sensory and cognitive networks.

Research Highlights
► Event related coherences were analyzed in 38 Alzheimer patients
► In low frequency ranges event related coherences were reduced in Alzheimer patients
► In beta and gamma frequency bands event related coherences were not reduced.
► The analysis of event related coherences can be used in clinical studies.