Structural Features Of The Brain In Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment And Their Correlation With Mild Behavioral Impairment

Neuroscience and Behavioral Physiology. 2025. Vol. 55. No. 9. P. 1681–1687.

N. S. Cherkasov, Tomyshev A. S., Lebedeva I. S., Abdullina E. G., Bozhko O. V., Gavrilova S. I., Kolykhalov I. V.

Objective. To identify the structural features of the brain in elderly patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and the correlations of these features with mild behavioral impairment. Materials and methods. Fifty-three patients with aMCI (age 73.0 ± 8.5 years, nine men) and 34 mentally healthy subjects (66.8 ± 9.6 years, four men) were examined. Cognitive status was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scale and the severity of mild behavioral impairment was evaluated using the MBI-C (Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist) questionnaire. Structural MRI images were obtained on a 3T Philips Ingenia instrument. Cortical gray matter thickness, subcortical volumes, and their correlations with MBI-C and MoCA scores were analyzed. Results. Patients with aMCS were found to have smaller cortical thickness in the left superior frontal gyrus and right precuneus (p < 0.05), these parameters correlating negatively with MBI-C scores. In addition, this group had smaller amygdalar and hippocampal volumes in the left hemisphere (p < 0.05), with a positive correlation between the volume of the left amygdala and MoCA scores. Conclusion. The changes in structural MRI parameters and their correlations with neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive symptoms found here reflect the complex nature of the cerebral substrate of cognitive and behavioral impairments in aMCI. These results indicate the need for further work seeking clinically significant phenotypes in patients with aMCI, including those associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Keywords: old age, cerebral cortical thickness, amygdala, structural MRI, mild cognitive impairment, mild behavioral impairment