Interpersonal MEG Correlations & Physiobehavioral Synchrony in Dementia Patients and Caregivers

University Of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha NE

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Project 3 (RPL Chen) – Interpersonal MEG/EEG Correlations & Physiobehavioral Synchrony in Dementia Patients and Caregivers Cognitive Neuroscience of Development and Aging (CoNDA) Center Dementia is associated with profound neurodegeneration in large-scale brain networks and increased cognitive, emotional, and social impairments that are difficult not only for the person with dementia (PWD) but also for the caregiver (CG). Caring for a loved one with dementia can be a meaningful part of family life; however, disruptive symptoms can produce deleterious effects and undermine CGs’ mental and physical health. Interpersonal connectedness is typically studied using self-report, which can be limited in dementia research due to PWDs’ functional declines and CGs’ increased stress and burden. Interpersonal physiobehavioral synchrony refers to the degrees to which people’s peripheral physiological responses and behaviors are interpersonally synchronized during dyadic interactions, which provides an alternative, more objective, less cognitively demanding measure to study PWD-CG connectedness. Past research has found diminished physiobehavioral synchrony between PWDs and CGs, and this effect was linked to PWD behavioral symptoms and associated with adverse CG health outcomes. Yet, the neural mechanisms for reduced PWD-CG physiobehavioral synchrony; and its pathways to longitudinal CG health changes remain unclear. To address these knowledge gaps, we focus on interpersonal neural response correlations between PWDs and CGs—the degree to which their brain responses are interpersonally correlated (showing similar patterns of changes) during watching a video replay of their own dyadic interactions. We apply magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with electroencephalogram (EEG). This MEG/EEG approach offers superior temporal and spatial resolutions, allowing us to study physiobehavioral synchrony (which is highly temporal dynamic and can change in sub- second time scale) and the precise related neural regions and networks associated with its changes in dementia. We use a transdiagnostic approach by including multiple types of dementia while focusing on common PWD behavioral symptoms. In 90 PWD-spousal CG dyads, we determine how lower PWD-CG neural response correlations contribute to diminished PWD-CG physiobehavioral synchrony (Aim 1), how social contexts play a role (by moderating the association between PWD-CG neural response correlations and physiobehavioral synchrony; Aim 2), and the pathway through which reduced PWD-CG neural response correlations contribute to longitudinal CG health declines (Aim 3). The project will be utilizing resources and support from the UNMC CoNDA, including its MEG and MRI cores, mentorships from internal and external experts, and the collaborative environment. Research activities of this project will lead to a successful R01 application to advance the understanding of how dementia affects PWDs, CGs, their dyadic processes, and health. Research findings will advance the identification of the neurobiological markers/mechanisms for reduced physiobehavioral synchrony (and more broadly reduced interpersonal connectedness) in dementia and the brain-behavior-social pathways for adverse CG health outcomes.