TY - JOUR
T1 - Altered visual entrainment in patients with Alzheimer's disease
T2 - magnetoencephalography evidence
AU - Springer, Seth D.
AU - Wiesman, Alexander I
AU - May, Pamela E.
AU - Schantell, Mikki
AU - Johnson, Hallie J.
AU - Willett, Madelyn P.
AU - Castelblanco, Camilo A.
AU - Eastman, Jacob A.
AU - Christopher-Hayes, Nicholas J.
AU - Wolfson, Sara L.
AU - Johnson, Craig M.
AU - Murman, Daniel L.
AU - Wilson, Tony W
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Recent research has indicated that rhythmic visual entrainment may be useful in clearing pathological protein deposits in the central nervous system of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. However, visual entrainment studies in human patients with Alzheimer's disease are rare, and as such the degree to which these patients exhibit aberrations in the neural tracking of rhythmic visual stimuli is unknown. To fill this gap, we recorded magnetoencephalography during a 15Hz visual entrainment paradigm in amyloid-positive patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum and compared their neural responses to a demographically matched group of biomarker-negative healthy controls. Magnetoencephalography data were imaged using a beamformer and virtual sensor data were extracted from the peak visual entrainment responses. Our results indicated that, relative to healthy controls, participants on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum exhibited significantly stronger 15Hz entrainment in primary visual cortices relative to a pre-stimulus baseline period. However, the two groups exhibited comparable absolute levels of neural entrainment, and higher absolute levels of entertainment predicted greater Mini-mental Status Examination scores, such that those patients whose absolute entrainment amplitude was closer to the level seen in controls had better cognitive function. In addition, 15Hz periodic activity, but not aperiodic activity, during the pre-stimulus baseline period was significantly decreased in patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. This pattern of results indicates that patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum exhibited increased visual entrainment to rhythmic stimuli and that this increase is likely compensatory in nature. More broadly, these results show that visual entrainment is altered in patients with Alzheimer's disease and should be further examined in future studies, as changes in the capacity to entrain visual stimuli may prove useful as a marker of Alzheimer's disease progression.
AB - Recent research has indicated that rhythmic visual entrainment may be useful in clearing pathological protein deposits in the central nervous system of mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. However, visual entrainment studies in human patients with Alzheimer's disease are rare, and as such the degree to which these patients exhibit aberrations in the neural tracking of rhythmic visual stimuli is unknown. To fill this gap, we recorded magnetoencephalography during a 15Hz visual entrainment paradigm in amyloid-positive patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum and compared their neural responses to a demographically matched group of biomarker-negative healthy controls. Magnetoencephalography data were imaged using a beamformer and virtual sensor data were extracted from the peak visual entrainment responses. Our results indicated that, relative to healthy controls, participants on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum exhibited significantly stronger 15Hz entrainment in primary visual cortices relative to a pre-stimulus baseline period. However, the two groups exhibited comparable absolute levels of neural entrainment, and higher absolute levels of entertainment predicted greater Mini-mental Status Examination scores, such that those patients whose absolute entrainment amplitude was closer to the level seen in controls had better cognitive function. In addition, 15Hz periodic activity, but not aperiodic activity, during the pre-stimulus baseline period was significantly decreased in patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. This pattern of results indicates that patients on the Alzheimer's disease spectrum exhibited increased visual entrainment to rhythmic stimuli and that this increase is likely compensatory in nature. More broadly, these results show that visual entrainment is altered in patients with Alzheimer's disease and should be further examined in future studies, as changes in the capacity to entrain visual stimuli may prove useful as a marker of Alzheimer's disease progression.
KW - Alzheimer's
KW - dementia
KW - entrainment
KW - magnetoencephalography
KW - vision
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85147674799&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85147674799&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/braincomms/fcac198
DO - 10.1093/braincomms/fcac198
M3 - Article
C2 - 35974799
AN - SCOPUS:85147674799
SN - 2632-1297
VL - 4
JO - Brain Communications
JF - Brain Communications
IS - 4
M1 - fcac198
ER -