Auditory post-processing in a passive listening task is deficient in Alzheimer's disease

作者：Bender Stephan^*; Bluschke Annet; Dippel Gabriel; Rupp Andre; Wei**rod Matthias; Thomas Christine

来源：Clinical Neurophysiology, 2014, 125(1): 53-62.

DOI：10.1016/j.clinph.2013.05.026

• Auditory evoked potential
• Alzheimer's disease
• Working memory
• Source analysis
• Sensory gating
• Aging

Objective: To investigate whether automatic auditory post-processing is deficient in patients with Alzheimer's disease and is related to sensory gating.
Methods: Event-related potentials were recorded during a passive listening task to examine the automatic transient storage of auditory information (short click pairs). Patients with Alzheimer's disease were compared to a healthy age-matched control group. A young healthy control group was included to assess effects of physiological aging.
Results: A bilateral frontal negativity in combination with deep temporal positivity occurring 500 ms after stimulus offset was reduced in patients with Alzheimer's disease, but was unaffected by physiological aging. Its amplitude correlated with short-term memory capacity, but was independent of sensory gating in healthy elderly controls. Source analysis revealed a dipole pair in the anterior temporal lobes.
Conclusion: Results suggest that auditory post-processing is deficient in Alzheimer's disease, but is not typically related to sensory gating. The deficit could neither be explained by physiological aging nor by problems in earlier stages of auditory perception. Correlations with short-term memory capacity and executive control tasks suggested an association with memory encoding and/or overall cognitive control deficits.
Significance: An auditory late negative wave could represent a marker of auditory working memory encoding deficits in Alzheimer's disease.

• 出版日期2014-1