Cortical Thickness Correlates of Go/No-go and Motor Sequencing in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Suspected Alzheimer Disease Dementia

Background: While the cognitive hallmark of typical Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is impaired memory consolidation, increasing evidence suggests that the frontal lobes and associated executive functions are also impacted. Objective: We examined two neurobehavioral executive function tasks and associations with cortical thickness in patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), suspected AD dementia, and a healthy control group. Methods: First, we compared group performances on a go/no-go (GNG) task and on Luria’s Fist-Edge-Palm (FEP) motor sequencing task. We then examined correlations between neurobehavioral task performance and the thickness of frontal cortical regions, AD signature regions, broader unbiased brain regions, and white matter hyperintensities (WMH). Results: Participants with MCI performed worse than healthy controls, but better than participants with suspected AD dementia on both tasks. Both GNG and FEP (to a slightly greater extent) tasks showed diffuse associations with most AD signature regions and multiple additional regions within the temporal, parietal, and occipital cortices. Similarly, both tasks showed significant associations with all other cognitive tasks examined. Of the frontal regions examined, only the middle frontal gyrus and pars opercularis were associated with performance on these tasks. Interactions between the precuneus and transtemporal gyri were most predictive of GNG task performance, while the interaction between superior temporal and lingual gyri was most predictive of FEP task performance. Conclusion: This study replicates difficulties with both GNG and FEP tasks in participants with MCI and AD dementia. Both tasks showed widespread associations with the cortical thickness of various brain structures rather than localizing to frontal regions, consistent with the diffuse nature of AD.