Multiple Cognitive Defi cits in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objective: To determine if more widespread cognitive defi cits are present in a narrowly defi ned group of patients with the amnestic form of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: From a larger sample of patients clinically diagnosed as meeting the criteria of Petersen et al. for amnestic MCI, we selected 22 subjects who had Clinical Dementia Rating scores of zero on all domains besides memory and orientation. These MCI subjects with presumably isolated memory impairments were compared to 35 age-matched normal controls and 33 very mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients on a battery of neuropsychological tests. Result: In addition to the expected defi cits in episodic memory, the amnestic MCI group performed less well than the controls but better than the AD group on design fl uency, category fl uency, a set shifting task and the Stroop interference condition. Over half the amnestic MCI group (vs. none of the normal controls) scored at least 1 standard deviation below control means on 4 or more of the nonmemory cognitive