EEG-Derived Functional Connectivity Patterns Associated with Mild Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease

• Main Authors: Alejandro Armando Peláez Suárez, Sheila Berrillo Batista, Ivonne Pedroso Ibáñez, Enrique Casabona Fernández, Marinet Fuentes Campos, Lilia Morales Chacón
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Behavioral Sciences
• Subjects: Parkinson’s disease; mild cognitive impairment; electroencephalogram; functional connectivity; graph theory
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/11/3/40

Objective: To evaluate EEG-derived functional connectivity (FC) patterns associated with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Parkinson’s disease (PD). METHODS: A sample of 15 patients without cognitive impairment (PD-WCI), 15 with MCI (PD-MCI), and 26 healthy subjects were studied. The EEG was performed in the waking functional state with eyes closed, for the functional analysis it was used the synchronization likelihood (SL) and graph theory (GT). RESULTS: PD-MCI patients showed decreased FC in frequencies alpha, in posterior regions, and delta with a generalized distribution. Patients, compared to the healthy people, presented a decrease in segregation (lower clustering coefficient in alpha <i>p</i> = 0.003 in PD-MCI patients) and increased integration (shorter mean path length in delta <i>(p</i> = 0.004) and theta <i>(p</i> = 0.002) in PD-MCI patients). There were no significant differences in the network topology between the parkinsonian groups. In PD-MCI patients, executive dysfunction correlated positively with global connectivity in beta (r = 0.47) and negatively with the mean path length at beta (r = −0.45); alterations in working memory were negatively correlated with the mean path length at beta r = −0.45. CONCLUSIONS: PD patients present alterations in the FC in all frequencies, those with MCI show less connectivity in the alpha and delta frequencies. The neural networks of the patients show a random topology, with a similar organization between patients with and without MCI. In PD-MCI patients, alterations in executive function and working memory are related to beta integration.