Neural oscillations and brain stimulation in Alzheimer's disease

Abstract

Aging is associated with alterations in cognitive processing and brain neurophysiology. Whereas the primary symptom of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is memory problems greater than normal for age and education, patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) show impairments in other cognitive domains in addition to memory dysfunction. Resting-state electroencephalography (rsEEG) studies in physiological aging indicate a global increase in low-frequency oscillations' power and the reduction and slowing of alpha activity. The enhancement of slow and the reduction of fast oscillations, and the disruption of brain functional connectivity, however, are characterized as major rsEEG changes in AD. Recent rodent studies also support human evidence of age- and AD-related changes in resting-state brain oscillations, and the neuroprotective effect of brain stimulation techniques through gamma-band stimulations. Cumulatively, current evidence moves toward optimizing rsEEG features as reliable predictors of people with aMCI at risk for conversion to AD and mapping neural alterations subsequent to brain stimulation therapies. The present paper reviews the latest evidence of changes in rsEEG oscillations in physiological aging, aMCI, and AD, as well as findings of various brain stimulation therapies from both human and non-human studies.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Brain functional connectivity; Brain oscillations; Deep brain stimulation; Gamma-band stimulation; Graph analysis; Mild cognitive impairment; Music stimulation; Resting-state EEG; Transcranial magnetic stimulation.