The auditory P 300 correlates with specific cognitive deficits in Parkinson's disease.

Abstract

An abnormally prolonged latency of the P 300 event-related potential has been reported in several types of dementing illnesses, including Parkinson's disease (PD). While some PD patients have dementia, a significant number of PD patients have less severe cognitive impairments. We examined the relationship between the auditory P 300 and a neuropsychological battery of 11 tasks in 43 PD patients. The quantitative relationship between the individual neuropsychological measures and the P 300 was examined using partial correlation and analysis of covariance techniques which controlled for age, education, and illness duration. The strongest correlations were between P 300 and both short-term memory and visual perception. Global cognitive deficits do not appear to relate to the abnormal P 300 responses in PD: instead, specific aspects of cognitive decline accounted for the electrophysiological abnormalities. An abnormally long or absent P 300 correlated with deficits on select cognitive tasks: those involving memory, visual perception, and abstract reasoning. The interactions between anatomical and neurochemical abnormalities in PD are discussed in light of the pattern of deficits seen in this study.

• Authors: S Pang, J C Borod, A Hernandez, I Bodis-Wollner, S Raskin, L Mylin, L Coscia, M D Yahr
• Journal: Journal of neural transmission. Parkinson's disease and dementia section (J Neural Transm Park Dis Dement Sect) Vol. 2 Issue 4 Pg. 249-64 ( 1990) ISSN: 0936-3076 [Print] Austria
• PMID: 2078307 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.)

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Cognition (physiology)
• Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Memory, Short-Term (physiology)
• Middle Aged
• Neuropsychological Tests
• Parkinson Disease (physiopathology)
• Visual Perception (physiology)