Motor imagery of gait: A new way to detect mild cognitive impairment?

Objectives. 1) to measure and compare the time required to perform (ptug) and the time required to imagine (itug) the timed up & go (tug),and the time difference between these two tasks (i.e.,tug delta time) in older adults with cognitive decline (i.e.,mild cognitive impairment (mci) and mild-to-moderate alzheimer disease and related disorders (adrd)) and in cognitively healthy individuals (chi); and 2) to examine any association between the tug delta time and a cognitive status. methods. sixty-six participants (24 chi,23 individuals with mci,and 19 individuals with adrd) were recruited in this cross-sectional study. the mean and standard deviation of the ptug and itug completion times and the tug delta time,as well as age,gender,and mini-mental state examination (mmse) scores were used as outcomes. participants were separated into three groups based on the tertilization of tug delta time: lowest (<13.6%; n = 22; best performance),intermediate (13.6-52.2%; n = 22),and highest tertile (>52.2%; n = 22,worst performance). results: fewer chi were in the group exhibiting the highest tertile of tug delta time compared to individuals with lowest and intermediate tug delta times (p = 0.013). being in the highest tertile of the tug delta time was associated with cognitive decline in the unadjusted model (p = 0.012 for mci,and p = 0.021 for mild-to-moderate adrd). in the multivariate models,this association remained significant only for individuals with mci (p = 0.019 while adjusting for age and gender; p = 0.047 while adjusting for age,gender,and mmse score; p = 0.012 for the stepwise backward model). conclusions: our results provide the first evidence that motor imagery of gait may be used as a biomarker of mci in older adults. © 2014 beauchet et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.