The Pattern of Mu Rhythm Modulation During Emotional Destination Memory: Comparison Between Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients and Healthy Controls.

Leading theories of affect development and empirical studies suggest that emotion can enhance memory in older adults. Destination memory which is defined as the ability to remember to whom we told a piece of information is being found to be compromised in aging. In the present study, we sought to assess destination memory using emotional stimuli (Emotional Destination Memory, EDM) in 16 older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 16 healthy controls and shed light onto its potential neurophysiological aspects. We measured Mu suppression in frontal and temporal regions via EEG in real time while participants performed the task of EDM. Results showed no group differences in task performance but significant differences in fronto-temporal activations, specifically in electrodes F7 and F8. Differential Mu rhythm pattern was observed between healthy controls and MCI with the first exhibiting Mu suppression and the last Mu enhancement. Furthermore, Mu enhancement in temporal electrodes within the MCI group was associated with lower scores on EDM. The absence of group differences in the task can be explained by the fact that even if there are underlying structural or functional deficits in the MCI group, these deficits are manifested only at neurophysiological level and not at a behavioral level, which is a common pattern in the process of cognitive decline in its initial phases. The overall findings reveal that, even if there are not any behavioral decrements in MCI patients, they show reduced activations in fronto-temporal regions and this can be attributed to general impairment in emotional destination memory due to possible mirror neuron deficiency.