title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Tianjin Union Medical Center, 190 Jieyuan Road, Hongqiao District, Tianjin 300121, China. Electronic address: chrislinn@163.com.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Tianjin Huan Hu Hospital, 122 Qixiangtai Road, Hexi District, Tianjin 300060, China.
authors.forename: Yuying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tianjin Huan Hu Hospital, 122 Qixiangtai Road, Hexi District, Tianjin 300060, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroelectrophysiology, Tianjin Huan Hu Hospital, 122 Qixiangtai Road, Hexi District, Tianjin 300060, China.
authors.forename: Xueqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Tianjin Huan Hu Hospital, 122 Qixiangtai Road, Hexi District, Tianjin 300060, China.
authors.forename: Huihong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Tianjin Huan Hu Hospital, 122 Qixiangtai Road, Hexi District, Tianjin 300060, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D057174:Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia; Event-related evoked potentials; Frontotemporal lobar degeneration