| Summary: | The main objective of this study was to investigate whether event related potentials (ERPs) can be used as a biomarker of disease severity staging in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) within a heterogeneous group of patients presenting to a memory disorders clinic for initial evaluation. Based on the known progression of AD pathology, we hypothesized ERP components would be abnormal, commensurate with disease severity in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) due to AD, mild, and moderate to severe dementia due to AD. ERP components were predicted based on the known sites of their neural generators. ERP peaks measured during an auditory oddball paradigm from twenty-two AD (n=9) and non-AD (n=13) patients were compared to their clinical outcomes using multivariate ANCOVA controlling for age with Bonferroni corrections. The predictive abilities of significant ERP components were examined using a binary logistic regression model. Significant between-group effects were found in N100 distractor amplitude, F(2, 12) = 6.062, p = .015, ηp2 = .503. The results supported our hypothesis that N100 amplitude would be increased in AD, suggesting that sensory gating may be more impaired in mild AD than in non-AD related cognitive impairment.
|
|---|
