Cortical event-related potentials in Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Abstract

Background: The aim of the present study was to evaluate changes in event-related evoked potentials (ERPs) in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).

Methods: A total of 42AD patients, 29 behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) patients, and 30 healthy controls were examined. The subjects underwent neuropsychological tests and cognitive (N200 and P300) ERP examination. The amplitudes and latencies of the cortical potentials were compared among AD and bvFTD patients and control subjects.

Results: No differences in the ERP latencies and amplitudes for the N200 component were observed among the groups. AD patients exhibited significantly longer latencies of P300 at both Pz (p=0.002) and Cz (p=0.007) compared with the controls. Patients with bvFTD displayed longer P300 latencies at Pz (p=0.046) and a smaller amplitude at both Pz (p=0.000) and Cz (p=0.23) than the controls.

Conclusions: The results of the present study confirm the relevance of ERPs in evaluating cognitive disorders. These non-invasive examinations have the potential to contribute to the diagnosis of AD and bvFTD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; Event-related evoked potentials; Frontotemporal lobar degeneration.