P300 event-related potentials in de novo Parkinson's disease.

Recent studies indicate subtle cognitive deficits in many non-demented Parkinson's disease (PD) patients. Long-latency event-related potentials (LL-ERPs) index the nature and timing of a cognitive response to a stimulus and have been used to assess cognitive function in PD. Studies to date have only assessed patients receiving long-term anti-PD therapy, which may itself affect information processing. In this study we recorded the P300 using a standard auditory oddball paradigm with a button-press response in a group of de novo patients. A P300 was absent in 2 patients and prolonged in 2 patients but there was no difference in the latency or amplitude of the P300 in the Parkinsonian group compared with the age-matched control group. The averaged P300 of the young PD group was dispersed compared with that of the young controls. Our findings suggest that the amplitude and latency of P300 elicited using the paradigm of this study are not sensitive indices for differentiating PD patients from controls. A paradigm which places a greater load on the specific cognitive deficits of PD will be investigated. The dispersion of the P300 component in the young PD group may be support for the suggestion of distinct subgroups in PD. Our findings suggest that the latency and amplitude of LL-ERP components elicited by our paradigm were not sensitive indices for distinguishing PD patients from controls. The significance of the prolonged P3-RT measure is not clear.