Increased hippocampal activation in mild cognitive impairment compared to normal aging and AD

To use fMRI to investigate whether hippocampal and entorhinal activation during learning is altered in the earliest phase of mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Three groups of older individuals were studied: 10 cognitively intact controls, 9 individuals at the mild end of the spectrum of MCI, and 10 patients with probable Alzheimer disease (AD). Subjects performed a face-name associative encoding task during fMRI scanning, and were tested for recognition of stimuli afterward. Data were analyzed using a functional-anatomic method in which medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions of interest were identified from each individual's structural MRI, and fMRI activation was quantified within each region.