2.1. Participants

In the pre-experiment, we calculated an effect size of 0.35 among 10 participants. Based on an expected effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.45), a significance level (α = 0.05), and a statistical power of 0.8, the power analysis revealed the sample size of 62 patients with MCI and 62 HCs. A cohort of 57 individuals diagnosed with MCI were recruited from the Xujiahui Community Health Service Center, along with 67 HCs matched for age and gender from the local community.

The MCI diagnosis was made based on the criteria defined by Petersen and colleagues [29]: (1) Cognitive decline: cognitive impairment reported by the patient or informed person, and objective evidence of cognitive impairment, and/or objective examination confirms a decline in cognitive function compared to previous levels. (2) The daily basic abilities are normal, and the complex instrumental daily abilities may be slightly impaired. (3) No dementia. Our study enrolled participants aged 60 to 85 years, all of whom had at least six years of formal education and did not exhibit substantial visual or hearing impairments. All participants did not exhibit major psychiatric disorders, significant neurological conditions, or cerebrovascular diseases. Detailed demographic characteristics, including age, gender, height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), educational level, and MoCA scores, are provided in Table 1. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of Huashan Hospital, Fudan University. Before conducting the experiment, all participants were comprehensively informed about the experimental procedures and provided their written informed consent. Our clinical trial was approved by the Clinical Research Information Service of China, a publicly accessible primary registry that is part of the WHO International Clinical Trial Registry Platform. The trial was registered on 6 March 2022, with registration number ChiCTR2200057281. Identifier: https://www.chictr.org.cn/ (accessed on 30 July 2021).

Participants’ demographic information.

Note: * p < 0.05. MoCA stands for Montreal Cognitive Assessment, BMI stands for Body Mass Index.