HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Correspondence: Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when Correspondence are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Scheffers, M. K. Articles by Straus, S. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Scheffers, M. K. Articles by Straus, S. E.

Attention and short-term memory in chronic fatigue syndrome patients

An event-related potential analysis

Cognitive Neurophysiology Unit, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (Drs. Scheffers, Johnson, and Grafman)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and Medical Virology Section, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (J.K. Dale and Dr. Straus)
Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.

We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from 13 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and 13 matched normal controls. To assess attentional and memory deficits in CFS patients, we used a short-term memory task in which events occurred in different spatial locations and the patients made a rapid response (RT) when a letter in a relevant location matched a letter in the prememorized set (Attention paradigm). Time-on-task effects on the ERP and behavioral measures were assessed over the 2 1/2-hour duration of this task. Both groups also performed a visual Oddball paradigm, with an RT, before and after the Attention paradigm. The patients' RTs were much more variable and, in nine of 13 cases, slower than the mean RT of the controls in both paradigms. The patients' memory performance was not significantly different from that of the controls and there were no group differences in the overall amplitude, latency, or scalp distribution of the N1, P2, N2, or P300 components of the ERP in either paradigm. The ERP and performance data from both paradigms suggest that perceptual, attentional, and short-term memory processes were unaffected in CFS patients and that the differences were limited to response-related processes.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Ray Johnson, Jr., National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 5C422, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Received November 25, 1991. Accepted for publication in final form February 10, 1992.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. B. Krupp, M. Sliwinski, D. M. Masur, F. Friedberg, and P. K. Coyle Cognitive Functioning and Depression in Patients With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Multiple Sclerosis Arch Neurol, July 1, 1994; 51(7): 705 - 710. [Abstract] [PDF]