Functional Neuromarkers in early onset dementia

With Prof. Juri Kropotov  and Prof. Philip Morris

Date:  25th of February 2017

NB! The recording of the masterclass is available to members of the Institute. Please follow the link below:

Functional Neuromarkers in Dementia-access

There is an urgent need to improve the early diagnosis of dementia  as most developed nations are facing a problem of a cognitive decline of  pandemic proportions.

Alzheimer’s Australia believes that there are now some 24,0002 people under the age of 65 with a diagnosis of dementia in Australia. There may be many more with undiagnosed dementia given the problems reported with early diagnosis. So it is possible that one of your clients struggling with unexplained cognitive difficulties is suffering form dementia and desperately needs help to get a proper diagnosis.

Electroencephalography and Event Related Potentials area valuable tools for the early identification of dementia , capable acting  alongside of other neuroimaging studies and  confirming the localisation of neurophysiological dysfunction . This is especially important for determining protocols for  novel interventions using neuromodulation and tapping into the brain neuroplasticity. These can be rTMS , tDCS  and Neurofeedback. 

The masterclass  commenced with Michelle Aniftos, Clinical Psychologist (Mylne Street Mental Health, Toowoomba Australia)  presenting the intake profile of a client referred for psychological evaluation. Michelle notes that despite the provisional depression hypothesis given by the referring doctor, a more complex array of symptoms is identified including cognitive decline and loss of speech fluency.

Expert neurometric analysis of the QEEG and ERP findings are then provided by Professor Juri Kropotov (HBI Med, St Petersburg, Russia); and psychiatric analysis and discussion is provided by Professor Philip Morris, Impact Health, Southport Australia).

Summary of the case study:

A vast amount of empirical knowledge has been accumulated regarding neuromarkers of dementia in QEEG and event-related potentials (ERP).  They include 1) slowing and decreasing of the dominant posterior alpha rhythm, 2) emergence of the delta-theta activity over frontal electrodes, 3) decrease of P300 amplitude and increase of P300 latency.  We tested these hypotheses in the case of early neurocognitive decline.

Application of HBIMed methodology for comparing components of QEEG and ERPs with the corresponding data computed for a group of healthy subjects of the corresponding age showed the following neuromarkers:

1) Slow frequency of an ICA component of the alpha activity in eyes closed condition, 2) slowing of reaction time and inconsistency of response in the cued GO/NOGO task, 3) decrease in amplitude and increase in latency of the frontally distributed components of conflict detection and action inhibition operations.

The protocols of neurofeedback, tDCS and TMS are discussed on the basis of QEEG/ERP data.

Protocols  for neuromodulation modalities : neurofeedback, tDCS and TMS will  discussed on the basis of QEEG/ERP data.

The recording of this masterclass is available for members of the Institute. Please join by applying here: Become a Member