Neural and Retinal Characteristics in Relation to Working Memory in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment
Objective: This study investigated the relationship between neural activities and retinal structures associated with working memory (WM) in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: Eleven older adults with MCI and 29 healthy controls (60 to 73 years old) were tested. All participants underwent an event-related potential (ERP) recording while performing the two-back memory task. The Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) was administered to examine the perfusion and vessel density in the retina. Results: Results showed that WM performance in the MCI group was negatively associated with ERP latencies in central parietal regions (CP6 and CP8) (ps< 0.05). The left nasal vessel and perfusion den- sities were negatively correlated with the latencies in these two central parietal regions and positively related to WM performance only in the MCI group (ps< 0.05). Conclusion: The findings on WM, central parietal brain activity, and left nasal vessel and perfusion densities in the retina help us gain a better understanding of the neural and retinal underpinnings of WM in relation to MCI.