EEG signaturen van cognitieve stoornissen tijdens stadia van cognitieve achteruitgang

Cognitive decline is one of the main traits of several neurodegenerative disorders and can severely affect the life quality of both patients and caregivers. There are around 50 million dementia patients worldwide, a number that is expected to escalate rapidly in the future. The early and objective assessment of cognitive deficits, irrespective of their origin, not only serves diagnostic purposes, but is also crucial to assess the speed of progression and to implement patient management measures timely, including financial ones. Although quantitative electroencephalography (EEG) may not yet be included in the clinical work-up of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the technique has provided evidence to successfully distinguish between healthy participants and patients with dementia. Furthermore, EEG is a non-invasive and non-expensive technique compared to the analysis of cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), FDG-PET and MRI volumetry, which are commonly used to assess AD pathology. Since it has been shown that pathological changes in AD precede clinical manifestation by several years, we aim to differentiate between multiple stages of cognitive decline using the EEG methodology. We will include patients with subjective and mild cognitive impairment as well as AD patients. Finally, we aim to correlate the EEG features with established biomarkers of AD pathology (e.g., CSF, FDG-PET, MRI). When successful, this would further validate EEG for use in clinical settings and possibly even provide a better understanding of the disease itself.