J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1996; 8:293-304
Copyright © 1996 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
Event-related potentials as indices of subclinical neurological differences in HIV patients during rapid decision making
SE Linnville, FS Elliott and GE Larson
Cognitive Performance and Psychophysiology Department, Naval Health Research Center, San Diego, California, USA.
The authors examined decision making in HIV patients under slow and rapid
information deliveries. Thirteen asymptomatic, HIV-infected (HIV+) subjects
with known seroconversion dates and 13 healthy control subjects were
instructed to detect the "oddball" target tones among nontarget tones
during single-channel (slow) and dual-channel (rapid) deliveries.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) from midline scalp sites, reaction time,
and "hits" were recorded. Behaviorally, the two groups performed similarly,
and during single-channel delivery they produced similar ERPs indexing
target detection. However, during dual-channel delivery the HIV+ group
showed atypical morphology in the region of the P300 cognitive
decision-making component compared with the control group. Auditory ERPs
elicited by rapid, dichotic stimulus presentations appeared sensitive to
subclinical effects of HIV-related neuropathology in individuals who had
been HIV-positive for 3 months to 8 years.
