Event-related potentials and the diagnosis of short-term verbal memory disorders in cerebrovascular disease

Introduction. Cerebrovascular disease can cause different memory disorders depending on the area of the brain involved. More specifically, ischemic lesions in the frontal region can be associated to short-term verbal memory disorders. Patients and methods. Two groups of subjects were studied, 10 of whom were patients who presented a frontal cerebral infarction and 10 healthy controls. They were administered a memory task involving word recognition. While they were performing the task the electrical activity of their brains was recorded in order to examine event-related potentials (ERP). Results. The patients' performance of the task was poorer than that of the healthy control subjects. Likewise, while the latter displayed a predominantly frontal distribution of ERPs, in the patients the frontal activity diminished and was seen to be chiefly temporoparietooccipital. Conclusions. These findings allow important conclusions to be drawn about the characteristics of the memory disorder presented by these patients.