Background: QEEG could provide physiological biomarkers for changes over time in Parkinson's disease (PD) cognitive decline if they track with longitudinal neuropsychological performance.
Objective: Our aim was to correlate longitudinal changes in frequency domain quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) measures with change in neuropsychological performance testing in PD.
Methods: 71 PD subjects, not demented at baseline, were studied from the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders cohort. Baseline and follow-up digital EEG from PD subjects were analyzed for QEEG measures of background rhythm frequency and global relative power in delta (2.5-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-13 Hz), and beta (13-30 Hz) bands. Baseline and subsequent evaluation included Mini Mental Status Examination and five other neuropsychological tests that load on cognitive domains known to decline in PD. Pearson coefficient was used to assess correlations. Multiple linear regression modeling was used to assess the effect of variable combinations of QEEG and other measures, including age and PD duration.
Results: Changes in delta bandpower showed the highest and most consistent pattern of correlations with longitudinal changes in neuropsychological testing. The highest correlation was between delta bandpower increase and decline in the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (-0.59:p < 0.001). Delta bandpower was also increased in the incident dementia group compared to non-dementia at followup.
Conclusions: 1) Longitudinal change in the QEEG frequency domain measure of delta bandpower correlated best with longitudinal neuropsychological performance change in PD; 2) These results constitute preliminary evidence that delta bandpower may be a suitable biomarker for evaluating PD cognitive deterioration longitudinally.
Keywords: Parkinson's disease; biological markers; dementia; electroencephalography.