Contribution of Quantitative EEG to the Diagnosis of Early Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Idiopathic Parkinson’s Disease

Cognitive dysfunction can emerge during the clinical course of Parkinson’s disease (PD) even beginning in early stages, which requires extended neuropsychological tests for diagnosis. There is need for rapid, feasible, and practical tests in clinical practice to diagnose and monitor the patients without causing any discomfort. We investigated the utility of quantitative analysis of digital EEG (qEEG) for diagnosing subtle cognitive impairment in PD patients without evident cognitive deficits (ie, “normal cognition”). We enrolled 45 patients with PD and age- matched 39 healthy controls in the study. All participants had Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score greater than 25. qEEG analysis and extensive neuropsychological assessment battery were applied to all participants. Test scores for frontal executive functions, verbal memory processes, attention span, and visuospatial functions were significantly lower than healthy controls ( P < .01). qEEG analysis revealed a significant increase in delta, theta, and beta frequencies, and decrease in alpha frequency band in cerebral bioelectrical activity in patient group. In addition, power spectral ratios ([alpha + beta] / [delta + theta]) in frontal, central, temporal, parietal, and occipital regions were significantly decreased in patients compared with the controls. The slowing in EEG was moderately correlated with MMSE scores ( r = 0.411-0.593; P < .01). However, qEEG analysis and extensive neuropsychological assessment battery were only in weak correlation ( r = 0.230-0.486; P < .05). In conclusion, qEEG analysis could increase the diagnostic power in detecting subtle cognitive impairment in PD patients without evident cognitive deficit, perhaps years before the clinical onset of dementia.