[Event-related potentials and the diagnosis of short-term verbal memory disorders in cerebrovascular disease].

Introduction: Cerebrovascular disease can cause different memory disorders depending on the area of the brain involved. More specifically, ischemic lesions in the frontal region can be associated to short-term verbal memory disorders.

Patients And Methods: Two groups of subjects were studied, 10 of whom were patients who presented a frontal cerebral infarction and 10 healthy controls. They were administered a memory task involving word recognition. While they were performing the task the electrical activity of their brains was recorded in order to examine event-related potentials (ERP).

Results: The patients' performance of the task was poorer than that of the healthy control subjects. Likewise, while the latter displayed a predominantly frontal distribution of ERPs, in the patients the frontal activity diminished and was seen to be chiefly temporoparietooccipital.

Conclusions: These findings allow important conclusions to be drawn about the characteristics of the memory disorder presented by these patients.