P300 from amnesic patients with bilateral hippocampal lesions.

P3(00) event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded using auditory and visual stimuli from 5 amnesic patients with confirmed (n = 4) or suspected (n = 1) bilateral damage to the hippocampal formation without skull defects. Four normal control subjects were matched to each amnesic patient with respect to age, sex, education, and IQ subtest scores (n = 20 total controls). All 5 amnesic patients exhibited ERPs, and no reliable differences in P3 amplitude or latency could be detected between the patients and the control subjects in either modality. The findings indicate that the hippocampal formation does not contribute significantly to the scalp-recorded P3 from auditory and visual target stimuli, a conclusion also supported by additional recent findings from studies of patients with extensive bilateral medial temporal lobe damage studies. The significance of the P3 component for cognitive processing is discussed.