Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul 2:10:452-460.
doi: 10.1016/j.dadm.2018.05.007. eCollection 2018.

Event-related potentials during sustained attention and memory tasks: Utility as biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment

Shani Waninger  1 , Chris Berka  1 , Amir Meghdadi  1 , Marija S Karic  1 , Kimberly Stevens  2 , Cinthya Aguero  2 , Tatiana Sitnikova  2 , David H Salat  2 , Ajay Verma  3
Affiliations

Event-related potentials during sustained attention and memory tasks: Utility as biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment

Shani Waninger et al. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). .

Abstract

Introduction: The objective of the study is to validate attention and memory tasks that elicit event-related potentials (ERPs) for utility as sensitive biomarkers for early dementia.

Methods: A 3-choice vigilance task designed to evaluate sustained attention and standard image recognition memory task designed to evaluate attention, encoding, and image recognition memory were administered with concurrent electroencephalography acquisition to elicit ERPs in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and healthy cohorts. ERPs were averaged, and mean or maximum amplitude of components was measured and compared between and within cohorts.

Results: There was significant suppression of the amplitude of the late positive potential in the MCI cohort compared with the healthy controls during 3-choice vigilance task, predominantly over occipital and right temporal-parietal region, and standard image recognition memory task over all regions. During standard image recognition memory task, diminished performance showed strong correlation with electroencephalography measurements. The old/new effects observed in the healthy controls cohort correlated with performance and were lost in MCI.

Discussion: ERPs obtained during cognitive tasks may provide a powerful tool for assessing MCI and have strong potential as sensitive and robust biomarkers for tracking disease progression and evaluating response to investigative therapeutics.

Keywords: Biomarker; Electroencephalography; Event-related potential; Mild cognitive impairment; Neurophysiology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Panel A: Grand average ERPs for correct response to target trials in SIR task at each channel for HC (blue) and MCI cohorts (red). Panel B: Topographical maps of the mean amplitude of the LPP component for HC and MCI cohorts and the difference between the two cohorts. Channels with significant differences (P < .05) in mean LPP are circled. Abbreviations: EPRs, event-related potentials; HC, healthy controls; LPP, late positive potential.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Panel A: Grand average ERPs for correct response to target trials in 3CVT task plotted for all channels in both HC (blue) and MCI cohort (red). Panel B: Topographical maps of the mean amplitude of the LPP component for HC and MCI cohorts and the difference between the two cohorts. Channels with significant differences (P < .05) in mean LPP are circled. Abbreviations: 3CVT, 3-choice vigilance task; ERPs, event-related potentials; HC, healthy controls; LPP, late positive potential.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Panel A: Scatter plots of performance (F-Measure) and mean amplitude of LPP in channel P3 during SIR task. Panel B: Topographical maps of the Pearson's correlation coefficient r on 2D and 3D head maps. Channels with significant (P < .01) correlation values greater than 0.5 are marked with black diamonds. Abbreviations: HC, healthy controls; LPP, late positive potential; SIR, standard image recognition memory task.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Old/new effect on ERP measures in SIR task at channel P3. Panel A: Grand average ERP waveforms for both target and nontarget trials. Panel B and C: Topographical maps indicate mean amplitude of LPP (B) and maximum amplitude of P200 (C) for target, nontarget and the difference between target and nontarget. Channels with significant differences between target and nontarget are highlighted with black circles. D: Correlation between old/new effect and performance (F-measure). Abbreviations: ERP, event-related potential; LPP, late positive potential; SIR, standard image recognition memory task.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Sperling R.A., Aisen P.S., Beckett L.A., Bennett D.A., Craft S., Fagan A.M. Toward defining the preclinical stages of Alzheimer's disease: recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer's Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2011;7:280–292. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jack C.R., Jr., Knopman D.S., Jagust W.J., Petersen R.C., Weiner M.W., Aisen P.S. Tracking pathophysiological processes in Alzheimer's disease: an updated hypothetical model of dynamic biomarkers. Lancet Neurol. 2013;12:207–216. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Picton T.W., Bentin S., Berg P., Donchin E., Hillyard S.A., Johnson R., Jr. Guidelines for using human event-related potentials to study cognition: recording standards and publication criteria. Psychophysiology. 2000;37:127–152. - PubMed
    1. Polich J., Ehlers C.L., Otis S., Mandell A.J., Bloom F.E. P300 latency reflects the degree of cognitive decline in dementing illness. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1986;63:138–144. - PubMed
    1. Polich J., Kok A. Cognitive and biological determinants of P300: an integrative review. Biol Psychol. 1995;41:103–146. - PubMed