Healthy ageing and cognitive impairment alter EEG functional connectivity in distinct frequency bands

Functional connectivity (FC) indicates the interdependencies between brain signals recorded from spatially distinct locations in different frequency bands, which is modulated by cognitive tasks and is known to change with ageing and cognitive disorders. Recently, the power of narrow-band gamma oscillations induced by visual gratings have been shown to reduce with both healthy ageing and in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, the impact of ageing/MCI on stimulus-induced gamma FC has not been well studied. We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) from a large cohort (N = 229) of elderly subjects (>49 years) while they viewed large cartesian gratings to induce gamma oscillations and studied changes in alpha and gamma FC with healthy ageing (N = 218) and MCI (N = 11). Surprisingly, we found distinct differences across age and MCI groups in power and FC. With healthy ageing, alpha power did not change but FC decreased significantly. MCI reduced gamma but not alpha FC significantly compared with age and gender matched controls, even when power was matched between the two groups. Overall, our results suggest distinct effects of ageing and disease on EEG power and FC, suggesting different mechanisms underlying ageing and cognitive disorders.