Study of event-related potentials on mild cognitive impairment patients' visual attention

Objective To explore the visual attention of mild cognitive impairment patients.Methods Basic cognitive ability test and oddball task event-related potentials(ERPs) were used to measure the visual attention of 16 mild cognitive impairment subjects( MCI group)and 17 health older adults(control group).Results came from Basic cognitive ability test, data of ERPs beheavior and the amplitude and latency of P3a( related to nonvoluntary attention )and P3b (related to voluntary attention)of the two said groups were compared and contrasted.Result The resuits of meaningless figures recognition and two-word recogniton of MCI group were lower than NC group significantly ( P < 0.05 ).The correct rate of MCI group was were lower than control group significantly( P < 0.01 ).The reaction time of MCI group was were longer than control group significantly( P < 0.01 ).The amplitude of P3a was lower than the health control( P < 0.01 )significantly.The latency of P3b was significantly prolonged compared to the control (P < 0.01 ).The correct number of meaningless figures recognition of MCI group and control group were respectively corrected with the amplitude of P3a of the groups ( MCI group R = 0.83, P < 0.01 ; control group R = 0.86, P <0.01 ).Conclusions The mild cognitive impairment patients had deficit on non-selective attention function.The selectiv attention function of MCI group was slower compared to conntrols. Key words: Mild cognitive impairment; Visual attention; Event-related potentials