title: ERP C250 shows the elderly (cognitively normal, Alzheimer's disease) store more stimuli in short-term memory than Young Adults do.
abstract: To determine how aging and dementia affect the brain's initial storing of task-relevant and irrelevant information in short-term memory.
  
  
  
  We used brain Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to measure short-term memory storage (ERP component C250) in 36 Young Adults, 36 Normal Elderly, and 36 early-stage AD subjects. Participants performed the Number-Letter task, a cognitive paradigm requiring memory storage of a first relevant stimulus to compare it with a second stimulus.
  
  
  
  In Young Adults, C250 was more positive for the first task-relevant stimulus compared to all other stimuli. C250 in Normal Elderly and AD subjects was roughly the same to relevant and irrelevant stimuli in Intratrial Parts 1-3 but not 4. The AD group had lower C250 to relevant stimuli in part 1.
  
  
  
  Both normal aging and dementia cause less differentiation of relevant from irrelevant information in initial storage. There was a large aging effect involving differences in the pattern of C250 responses of the Young Adult versus the Normal Elderly/AD groups. Also, a potential dementia effect was obtained.
  
  
  
  C250 is a candidate tool for measuring short-term memory performance on a biological level, as well as a potential marker for memory changes due to normal aging and dementia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States. Electronic address: rmc@cvs.rochester.edu.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States.
authors.forename: Margaret N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Gardner
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642, United States.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mapstone
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klorman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642, United States.
authors.forename: Anton P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Porsteinsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States.
authors.forename: Haley M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Dupree
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States.
authors.forename: Inga M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Antonsdottir
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, United States.
authors.forename: Lily
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kamalyan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term
keywords: Alzheimer’s disease (AD); Electrophysiology; Event-Related Potentials (ERP); Principal Components Analysis (PCA); Short-latency ERP component C250; Short-term memory