Altered frontoparietal EEG rhythms in mild cognitive impairment during high-recall movie-watching

Engaging with movies as a high-cognitive task is an effective method for stimulating brain activity. However, the impact of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) on brain activity in higher-order regions related to autobiographical memory recall during movie watching remains unclear. In this study, we recorded the EEG of 43 healthy control (HC) individuals and 35 patients with MCI while they watched short old movie clips: one with low recall for 5 min and another with high recall for 5 min. The relationships between power indices and neuropsychological test results were assessed using Pearson's correlations coefficients. The main results showed significant differences in EEG spectrum change between MCI and HC groups during high and low recall movie-watching. These differences were observed in the frontal regions in the delta (1–4 Hz) band and in the parietal region in beta1 (12.5–18.5 Hz) and beta2 (18.5–21 Hz) bands (p < 0.05, false discovery rate adjusted). Furthermore, the different variations in EEG spectrum changes between conditions of watching movies with high versus low recall significantly associated with neuropsychological test, such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) (r = 0.3580, p = 0.0005) and the Minimum Mental State Examination (MMSE) (r = 0.2607, p = 0.0212). These findings indicate that patients with MCI may experience impaired brain function activation during high recall movie watching. This study also underscores the potential of movie-watching-specific EEG biomarkers for assessing MCI.