title: The effects of scopolamine on event-related potentials in a continuous recognition memory task.
abstract: Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a task requiring continuous recognition memory for visually-presented words. Twelve subjects each performed the task twice, once following the administration of scopolamine, and once after receiving a saline placebo. In the placebo condition, correctly detected "old" words (i.e., words that had been presented once before during the task) evoked more positive-going ERPs than did "new" words. Scopolamine caused a substantial impairment in task performance, but did not reduce the size of these old-word/new-word ERP differences. It is concluded that old/new ERP effects are unlikely to reflect cholinergically-mediated neural activity underlying normal recognition memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of St. Andrews, U.K.
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Pickles
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Rugg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis
chemical_list: D012601:Scopolamine