Working memory deficit is a signature of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The free and cued selective reminding test (FCSRT) is a clinical test that quantifies memory deficit for AD diagnosis. However, the diagnostic accuracy of FCSRT may be increased by accompanying it with neuroimaging. Since the test requires doctor-patient interaction, brain monitoring is challenging. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) could be suited for such a purpose because of the fNIRS flexibility. We investigated whether the complexity, based on sample entropy and multiscale entropy metrics, of the fNIRS signal during FCSRT was correlated with memory deficit in early AD. fNIRS signals were recorded over the prefrontal cortex of healthy and early AD participants. Group differences were tested through Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test ([Formula: see text]). At group level, we found significant differences for Brodmann areas 9 and 46. The results, although preliminary, demonstrate the feasibility of performing ecological studies on early AD with fNIRS. This approach may provide a potential neuroimaging-based method for diagnosis of early AD, viable at the doctor's office level, improving test-based diagnosis. The increased entropy of the fNIRS signal in early AD suggests the opportunity for further research on the neurophysiological status in AD and its relevance for clinical symptoms.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; entropy; free and cued selective reminding test; functional near-infrared spectroscopy.