School of Psychology, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 1342, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, 7250.
Neuropsychology. 2011 Mar;25(2):237-48. doi: 10.1037/a0021134.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has emerged as a classification for a prodromal phase of cognitive decline that may precede the emergence of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent research suggests that attention, executive, and working memory deficits may appear much earlier in the progression of AD than traditionally conceptualized, and may be more consistently associated with the later development of AD than memory processing deficits. The present study longitudinally tracked attention, executive and working memory functions in subtypes of MCI.
In a longitudinal study, 52 amnestic MCI (a-MCI), 29 nonamnestic MCI (na-MCI), and 25 age- and education-matched controls undertook neuropsychological assessment of visual and verbal memory, attentional processing, executive functioning, working memory capacity, and semantic language at 10 month intervals.
Analysis by repeated measures ANOVA indicate that the a-MCI and na-MCI groups displayed a decline in simple sustained attention (ηp² = .054) with a significant decline on a task of divided attention (ηp² = .053) being evident in the a-MCI group. Stable deficits were found on other measures of attention, working memory and executive function in the a-MCI and na-MCI groups. The a-MCI group displayed stable impairments to visual and verbal memory.
The results indicate that a-MCI and na-MCI display a stable pattern of deficits to attention, working memory, and executive function. The decline in simple sustained attention in a-MCI and n-MCI groups and to divided attention in a-MCI may be early indicators of possible transition to dementia from MCI. However, further research is required to determine this.
轻度认知障碍 (MCI) 已成为认知能力下降前的前驱阶段的分类，可能先于阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 的出现。最近的研究表明，注意力、执行和工作记忆缺陷在 AD 的进展中可能比传统上更早出现，并且与 AD 的后期发展比记忆处理缺陷更一致相关。本研究对 MCI 的亚型进行了注意力、执行和工作记忆功能的纵向跟踪。
在一项纵向研究中，52 名遗忘型 MCI (a-MCI)、29 名非遗忘型 MCI (na-MCI) 和 25 名年龄和教育程度匹配的对照组在 10 个月的时间间隔内进行了视觉和语言记忆、注意力处理、执行功能、工作记忆能力和语义语言的神经心理学评估。
重复测量方差分析表明，a-MCI 和 na-MCI 组在简单持续注意力方面表现出下降（ηp² =.054），在 a-MCI 组中明显出现了注意力分散任务的显著下降（ηp² =.053）。在注意力、工作记忆和执行功能的其他测量中，a-MCI 和 na-MCI 组均存在稳定的缺陷。a-MCI 组在视觉和语言记忆方面表现出稳定的损伤。
结果表明，a-MCI 和 na-MCI 表现出注意力、工作记忆和执行功能的稳定缺陷模式。a-MCI 和 n-MCI 组简单持续注意力下降和 a-MCI 组注意力分散下降可能是 MCI 向痴呆过渡的早期指标。然而，还需要进一步的研究来确定这一点。
