Objective To investigate differences in structural and functional brain changes between the aged with mild cognitive impairment(MCI)and ones with normal aging.Methods The voxel-based morphometry(VBM)method was applied to evaluate the differences in brain regional gray matter volume between MCI and normal aging groups.Brain responses,during a suitable episodic memory recognition task,were also examined and compared between the two groups.Results Compared to normal aging,the MCI subjects had greater atrophy in memory related brain regions(P<0.001).In addition,the MCI subjects showed significant activation in the ventrolateral and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex,the right superior and inferior temporal cortex and the occipital cortex when undertook the visual episodic memory recognition task (P<0.005).Conclusions The results support that there is gray matter atrophy in memory related brain regions in the elderly with MCI,and in performing the suitable episodic memory recognition task,the additional brain regions may be activated for compensation for memory related brain regions deficits.