Effects of Eye Movement Exercise on Cognitive Function and Prefrontal Cortex Connectivity for the Elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment: An fNIRS Study

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an eye movement exercise intervention on cognitive function and prefrontal cortex connectivity in the elderly with mild cognitive impairment.METHODS Ten older adults with mild cognitive impairment participated in eye movement exercise consisting of saccadic eye movement, pursuit eye movement, vestibular-ocular eye movement, and vergence eye movement for 4 weeks. Cognitive function (MoCA-K), reaction time during stroop task, and prefrontal cortex connectivity were measured using the functional near-infrared spectrometric analyzer (fNIRS) before and after the intervention.RESULTS First, cognitive function of the elderly with mild cognitive impairment showed significant improvement after the eye movement exercise (p < .05). Second, reaction time decreased significantly from 1.16 to 0.91 ms after eye movement exercise. Third, the strength of prefrontal cortex connectivity (left OFC - right FPC, right OFC - right FPC) increased after the intervention in the older adults with mild cognitive impairment.CONCLUSIONS The results of this study suggest that eye movement exercise is an effective intervention for improving cognitive function through improvement of brain functional connection in the elderly patients with mild cognitive impairment.