School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, Toronto, Ont., Canada.
Eur Neurol. 2011;66(5):283-93. doi: 10.1159/000331049. Epub 2011 Oct 21.
BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study examined cognitive-motor integration in adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Previously, we showed that the performance of early-stage Alzheimer's disease patients declined significantly as a visually-guided movement went from having a standard mapping (vision and action spatially aligned) to having a non-standard mapping (vision and action incongruent). The present study extends this line of research by examining the performance of individuals affected by MCI.
The participants made finger movements over a clear touchscreen placed in two separate spatial planes to either constantly present or remembered visual targets. These spatial plane conditions were repeated with the direction of cursor motion rotated 180° from that of hand motion. We also tested an 'arbitrary' condition where symbols instructed the participants to move their hand in certain directions.
We observe that adults with MCI took significantly longer to plan movements requiring intermediate levels of non-standard mapping, relative to healthy older adults.
These data suggest that movements requiring rule integration is affected even in individuals at a very early stage of cognitive decline. Cognitive-motor integration may provide a sensitive means to detect functional difficulty in early cognitive impairment.
背景/目的：本研究旨在检查轻度认知障碍（MCI）成年人的认知-运动整合。此前，我们发现，随着视觉引导运动从标准映射（视觉和动作空间对齐）转变为非标准映射（视觉和动作不一致），早期阿尔茨海默病患者的表现明显下降。本研究通过检查受 MCI 影响的个体的表现，扩展了这一研究领域。
参与者在两个单独的空间平面上的清晰触摸屏上进行手指运动，以恒定呈现或记住视觉目标。在与手运动方向旋转 180°的情况下重复这些空间平面条件。我们还测试了一种“任意”条件，其中符号指示参与者以特定方向移动手。
我们观察到，与健康老年人相比，MCI 成年人在计划需要中等程度非标准映射的运动时花费的时间明显更长。
这些数据表明，即使在认知衰退的早期阶段，需要规则整合的运动也会受到影响。认知-运动整合可能为检测早期认知障碍中的功能困难提供一种敏感的手段。
