Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) manifests as memory impairment in the absence of dementia and progresses to Alzheimer's disease (AD) at a rate of around 15% per annum, versus 1–2% in the general population. It thus constitutes a primary target for investigation of early markers of AD. Language deficits occur early in AD, and performance on verbal tasks is an important diagnostic criterion for both AD and MCI. We review language performance in MCI, compare these findings to those seen in AD, and identify the primary issues in understanding language performance in MCI and selecting tasks with diagnostic and prognostic value.

Evaluating the cognitive status of individuals who are visually impaired is limited by the design of the test that is used. This article presents data on the sensitivity and specificity of the version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment for people who are visually impaired. The original validation data were reanalyzed, excluding the five visual items. The results indicated that the specificity was excellent, while sensitivity was reduced; however, the recommended proportionally adjusted cutoff values showed better sensitivity.

Cognition and mobility in older adults are closely associated and they decline together with aging. Studies evaluating associations between cognitive factors and gait performance in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are scarce. In this study, our aim was to determine whether specific cognitive factors have a more identifiable effect on gait velocity during dual-tasking in people with MCI.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) represents a group of individuals who are highly likely to develop Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although aMCI is typically conceptualized as involving predominantly deficits in episodic memory, recent studies have demonstrated that deficits in executive functioning may also be present, and thorough categorization of cognitive functioning in MCI may improve early diagnosis and treatment of AD. We first provide an extensive review of neuropsychology studies that examined executive functioning in MCI. We then present data on executive functioning across multiple sub-domains (divided attention, working memory, inhibitory control, verbal fluency, and planning) in 40 aMCI patients (single or multiple domain) and 32 normal elderly controls (NECs). MCI patients performed significantly worse than NECs in all 5 sub-domains, and there was impairment (>1.0 SD below the mean of NECs) in all sub-domains. Impairment on each test was frequent, with 100% of MCI patients exhibiting a deficit in at least one sub-domain of executive functioning. Inhibitory control was the most frequently and severely impaired. These results indicate that executive dysfunction in multiple sub-domains is common in aMCI and highlights the importance of a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation for fully characterizing the nature and extent of cognitive deficits in MCI. (JINS, 2012, 18, 541–555)